MS NOW producer Steve Benen says the FBI faces serious questions following the reported raid on the offices of Virginia Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore L. Louise Lucas, because “the hyperpartisan leaders of the Justice Department and the FBI have made it impossible to give them the benefit of the doubt.”
Benen finds multiple issues with the execution of what is reportedly a search warrant, including that Fox News was on the scene reporting almost immediately — an issue raised by online commentators as well.
The Bulwark’s Sam Stein quipped: “some pretty remarkable instincts by Fox News to have its London correspondent placed in Portsmouth, Virginia right in time for the FBI raid of Louise Lucas.”
The Bulwark’s Bill Kristol warned of an “awful lot of credulous quoting of ‘federal law enforcement’ sources in the coverage of the Louise Lucas matter. Given the manifest politicization of Trump’s DOJ and FBI, why should media agree to quote any of these sources on background?”
“Not to put too fine a point on this,” Benen continued, “but this is why we don’t politicize federal law enforcement. Because even if the underlying case is legitimate, it’s impossible to avoid the larger context and the degree to which this looks like a retaliatory investigation against a Democrat, launched by a weaponized department known for its retaliatory investigations against Democrats.“
Benen slams both the FBI and DOJ, saying they “have, over the last 16 months, set their collective credibility on fire, corrupting federal law enforcement to a degree unseen in generations. There have simply been too many abuses, launched too often, against too many Trump targets.”
He notes that Senator Lucas is the face of the Democrats’ successful redistricting of Virginia. Benen calls it “something very different, although possibly related.”
Benen also points to an Associated Press report:
“Though the exact nature of the investigation was unclear, the search comes as the FBI and Justice Department have opened a spate of politically charged investigations into perceived adversaries of President Donald Trump.”
He adds that he has “not seen or heard a word about any of the evidence against Lucas, if such evidence exists,” but allows that it is “entirely possible that investigators have worked in good faith.”
