JUST THE IMPORTANT ONES: Six things we still don’t know about the Trump raid after redacted FBI affidavit released.
Trump’s having fun with the near-total “redactions” though:
Related: Matt Taibbi: The Great Disappearing Raid Story. Did that big news two weeks ago actually happen?
Excuse me for giving a damn, but what happened to the Trump raid story?
Two weeks ago, the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home was the biggest story on earth and seemingly one of the most consequential American news events since 9/11. The search inspired a few hours of social media jubilation, followed by roughly a week of frenzied leaking as a parade of national security soothsayers unspooled sinister scenarios on TV, and then — nothing. The line went dead. By last week’s end, the cancellation of Brian Stelter on CNN was a top national headline in comparison.
Plus: How is this not a huge story?
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is running amok, but are we so desensitized by the rampant corruption and prosecutorial overreach that we’re just numb to it all? The curtain of professionalism and apoliticism that were hallmark characteristics of this agency began to fray with the bureau’s Russian collusion investigation in 2016. It was also marked by the unscrupulous love affair between two top officials, Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, and painted a picture of political animus that had infested the FBI.
The bureau and the Department of Justice are both facing heat for the August 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago, a political hit by the heavily politicized Biden Justice Department against a former president. The search warrant and the affidavit providing probable cause for the raid have yet to neutralize the stench that this wasn’t politically motivated. If anything, the release of the affidavit made the DOJ look worse.
Those will be settled in time, but another story of FBI overreach has gone under the radar. In 2020, the bureau reached out to Facebook and requested they censor the Hunter Biden laptop story. It’s another case of the FBI interfering in an election, only this time they’ve appointed themselves the guardians of information which is peak creepiness.
“How is this not a huge story,” asked Matt Taibbi, the former contributing editor to Rolling Stone. He then faced a deluge of unhinged liberals who just didn’t seem to get that a) the laptop was declared authentic eons ago, and b) the FBI policing speech in the middle of an election is antithetical to American values. The FBI is our leading domestic intelligence agency. As Taibbi noted, their meddling in news distribution should have sent chills down the spines of everyone, especially the American Civil Liberties Union. Where the hell are they in all of this?
Servicing the Democratic Party’s needs, as usual. The big takeaway from this story is about the corruption of every institution, from the FBI to the ACLU, in the service of those needs.