Saturday, February 03, 2018

Hey, Maybe It Could Happen ...

Only a little over a week ago, I suggested in a Garrison Center column that the FBI should be disbanded. The news hook for that suggestion was the destruction of evidence (text messages between FBI agents) from an important time frame in the Russiagate witch hunt investigation.

Yesterday's release of the House Intelligence Committee's memo on FBI/DoJ abusive manipulation of the already far too easy FISA warrant process seems to portend major repercussions for the FBI. Disbandment? Unlikely. But perhaps a house-cleaning far more thorough, and a visit to the woodshed far more painful, than any in its century of lawlessness and skulduggery.

One suggested minor reform:

The FBI is legendary for not recording interviews with suspects and witnesses, instead using -- and testifying in court in accordance with -- written notes produced by the agents during those interviews.

That needs to stop. Right now. Completely.  For prosecution/court purposes, the rule should be that if it isn't on verifiable audio or video, an FBI employee's testimony on it is inadmissible for lack of credibility. The FBI has proven itself too untrustworthy for the word of its agents to be accepted as true without very strong corroboration.

That would be a start, anyway.

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