'Tool of retribution': How Trump is destroying 'trust in federal law enforcement'

On Friday, August 22, CNN and MSNBC were dominated by images of FBI agents searching the Bethesda, Maryland home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who served in President Donald Trump's first administration but is now an outspoken critic of him — and vice versa. Quite a few Trump opponents are attacking the FBI search as politically motivated, including former Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin and ex-U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official Miles Taylor (himself a former Trump Administration official facing a federal investigation).

In an op-ed published by the New York Times on August 23, former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa argues that the search of Bolton's home might be "justified." But she warns that if the American public views the FBI as a tool of partisan politics, federal law enforcement will suffer greatly.

"On Friday, FBI agents searched the home and office of President Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, to determine whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information," Rangappa explains. "Unauthorized possession and disclosure of national defense information is indeed a crime, and anyone who engages in such acts should be prosecuted. But the very fact that the public can't be sure whether this is, in fact, a legitimate investigation highlights the current crisis of trust in federal law enforcement — a crisis that has been exacerbated by the words and actions of Mr. Trump and members of his administration."

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Rangappa, who now teaches at Yale University's Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs in New Haven, Connecticut, adds, "The FBI's history shows that public trust is easily lost and difficult to rebuild — a lesson that we may have to (re)learn…. But these are not regular times. It's no secret that President Trump is 'not a fan' of Mr. Bolton, as he reminded the country on Friday. In fact, the president has been at odds with Mr. Bolton since his first term."

The search of Bolton's home, according to Rangappa, raises concerns about the "broader stakes for federal law enforcement."

"Throughout our history," Rangappa explains, "the FBI has learned the hard way — a few times — that the American people need to believe in the legitimacy of federal law enforcement for it to be effective…. If the FBI is seen as a tool of retribution, it will come at the expense of the FBI's effectiveness in the long run."

The former FBI spent agent adds, "An FBI that is not perceived as legitimate will have a more difficult time gathering information and intelligence for its cases, which are often provided voluntarily by individuals who believe in its mission."

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Asha Rangappa's full op-ed for the New York Times is available at this link (subscription required).