Memo to Reporters: Ask the Republicans About Their Plans for the Deep State

The mainstream media and its right wing tributaries have spilt barrels of ink over the Durham Report the investigation into the mythical FBI Deep Staters who have been out to smear Donald Trump by digging into Russiaamp8217s generous help for his 2016 campaign Republicans have been peddling Durhamamp8217s dud as proof of the nonexistent cabalamp8217s antiTrump malevolence Unfortunately while dutifully covering the disinformation otherwise competent reporters are ignoring Trumpamp8217s very own Deep State ambitions right before their eyesThe Republicans promised shocking revelations but John Durham the US attorney handpicked by Trumpamp8217s Attorney General Bill Barr produced a big time bust in court and in print two not guilty verdicts that exonerated Durhamamp8217s accused a minor plea deal that fined a journeyman FBI attorney over a dumb transgression and a report that failed to unearth anything that hadnamp8217t already been investigated in 2019 Then the Justice Department inspector general called out the Bureau for its procedural missteps that the Gmen subsequently correctedBut the cost of Durhamamp8217s flop isnamp8217t just the three years and 65 million he pissed away Itamp8217s the fact the news media are helping Trump loyalists transform Durhamamp8217s underwhelming emission into agitprop for the 2024 presidential campaign while ignoring Trumpamp8217s Deep State in waiting Three years ago Trumpamp8217s minions did all they could to turn the governmentamp8217s international news services into his ministry of truth and to warp intelligence to suit his political needs The same crowd is planning far more pervasive purges and politicization if heamp8217s elected next yearThe latest evidence a February 2023 report from the US Agency for Global Mediaamp8217s general counsel USAGM oversees Voice of America and other federally funded international information services Their roles are crucial in providing access to a free press around the world Unlike Durhamamp8217s publicity hounds USAGM apparently didnamp8217t intend its general counselamp8217s report to lead the nightly news The title alone quotReview of Management Actionsquot appears handcrafted to throw even beaglenosed reporters off the scentRather than a postmortem the report is a preview of coming attractions Itamp8217s in the news thanks to David Folkenflik NPRamp8217s media correspondent His recent story provides the facts as enumerated by USAGMamp8217s general counsel Itamp8217s not the first Folkenflik did superb work on transgressions at the agency under its Trump era Famp252hrers reporting on partisan purges political pressures on Voice of America and other reporters and whistleblower revelations of suspect contracting then occurring and now laid out in the general counselamp8217s reportThe report focuses on David Pack a conservative filmmaker and USAGMamp8217s chief in Trumpamp8217s final year in office when the attempt to politicize the agency peaked Among the abuses Pack reportedly strongarmed journalists to toe the Trump political line stacked the boards of USAGM international news outlets with conservative ideologues fired career executives deemed antiTrump blocked federal funds for two companies he personally disfavored despite their successful technologies permitting news to penetrate firewalls in repressive regimes and used a nobid contract to pay a politically connected law firm 16 million in fees to investigate the cashiered federal employeesThe report on Packamp8217s gross mismanagement thatamp8217s how the general counsel describes his performance isnamp8217t just the USAGM investigatorsamp8217 view Thirty whistleblowers were catalysts for the inquiry and the US Office of Special Counsel which investigates federal whistleblower complaints endorsed the findings In Washington Pack also wasnamp8217t alone When it comes to compromising the nonpartisan integrity of the federal government in 2020 other Trump Deep Staters were hard at work shaping intelligence to their political ends just a few blocks awayA report to Congress in 2021 from the Director of National Intelligenceamp8217s quotanalytical ombudsmanquot laid out how Trumpamp8217s appointed officials misrepresented the facts and analysis on Russiaamp8217s election interference during the 2020 campaign As the transmittal letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee stated quotombudsmen from CIA NSA and ODNI report the widely shared perspective among amp8230 analysts that analysis on foreign election interference was delayed distorted or obstructed out of concern over policymaker reactions or for political reasonsquotHouse and Senate testimony in March 2020 by William Evanina then Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center is a good example The briefings presented analytical judgments on Russian election meddling that had been stood on their head Evaninaamp8217s talking points downplayed evidence of the interference and ignored Russiaamp8217s aim to help Trump Tapped as a lastminute standin to testify Evanina a respected career FBI agent later made clear DHS officials snookered him assuring that the script fully reflected the analystsamp8217 viewsThe DNIamp8217s investigators discovered memories were foggy about who specifically had torqued Evaninaamp8217s intelligence presentation but not their office address quotMost officialsquot the ombudsman wrote quotsay the distorted conclusions were drawn from 39existing reporting albeit selectively39 and 39shaped by other ODNI officials and amp8230 acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell39quot The misrepresentations were bad enough but as Campaign 2020 heated up the effort by Trump loyalists to cook the intelligence books didnamp8217t stop thereThe Department of Homeland Security DHS last year released its inspector generalamp8217s investigation into similar intelligence meddling in 2020 According to its IG then acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf repeatedly intervened in the review of a pending intelligence report on Russian plans to sow disinformation denigrating then candidate Joe Bidenamp8217s health Acting Secretary or not Wolf had no formal role in the review process The report meant for state and local officials was held for months because Wolf said it would embarrass President TrumpHow much do such findings matter Are they a record of a few missteps by a handful of political appointees or a harbinger of what a second Trump presidency will bring And after all what difference can they make Presidents already fill some 4000 appointed jobs overseeing policymaking as well as the governmentamp8217s career civil servants Would a few more zealots in corner offices have an impact on how say foreign and national security policy or the FBIamp8217s law enforcement decisions are madeTrump seems to think so As Jonathan Swan reported in detail in Axios last year he made that clear as president with his Executive Order that created quotSchedule Fquot a new employment category stripping away civil service protections for federal workers in policymaking jobs If he had won election in 2020 Schedule F would have allowed the reclassification of tens of thousands of positions enabling their occupants to be fired without cause President Biden rescinded the order Reinstating it according to Swan is at the top of Trumpamp8217s quottodoquot listCompared to writing copy on Trumpamp8217s latest lie on the campaign trail digging into reports from an agency general counsel or an ombudsman may not amount to flashy news But the call to politicize the federal governmentamp8217s career service isnamp8217t simply red meat for MAGA crowds For one Trump isnamp8217t shy about his plans quotEither the Deep State destroys America or we destroy the Deep Statequot he said at a March campaign rally Allan Smithamp8217s report on the NBC News website reveals that other GOP presidential hopefuls see a valuable campaign plank as wellItamp8217s not a surprise Consider the results when Axios polled the thenwannabe GOP nominees last year on Trumpamp8217s aborted executive order Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz each said he supported the idea while Josh Hawley Marco Rubio and Rick Scott were open to the concept Since then Ron DeSantis has endorsed Schedule F in his 2023 memoir and most recently Vivek Ramaswamy a newcomer in the GOP scrum said he doesnamp8217t think Schedule F goes far enough Last month he vowed to shut down the FBI and IRS and end all civil service protectionsIn short John Durham may have come up empty handed but the Republicans remain focused on the Deep State especially their own Some 64 conservative organizations are backing Project 2025 among other things a headhunting operation to fill the openings created by Schedule F if the GOP wins the White House Former Trump officials are deeply involved but the Heritage Foundation the projectamp8217s prime contractor has briefed all the presidential contenders to make sure they know where to find loyalists if they grab 2024amp8217s brass ringDeconstructing a modern civil service of course wonamp8217t be easy nor will covering the story But the threat to a nonpartisan professional government service as well as the potential consequences for the country including its national security are hardly a secret Ask the USAGM general counsel or the intelligence communityamp8217s ombudsmanOr ask Russ Vought Trumpamp8217s director of the Office of Management and Budget who authored Schedule F quotI think Schedule F is basically doctrine now on the rightquot Vought told NBC Newsamp8217 Alan Smith quotSchedule F is getting to the point where I cannot see anyone who runs on the Republican side who doesnamp8217t put this into playquotPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of 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Memo to Reporters: Ask the Republicans About Their Plans for the Deep State

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Kent M. Harrington

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