The F.B.I. Came by Corruption Honestly

Deval Kulsrestha  Lady Liberty

When I use the word corruption, I am thinking primarily of three elements: dishonesty; incompetence; and perversion of mission.  Ruin and rot.  Not unique among bureaucracies of every kind, corruption in the F.B.I. has been more aggressively concealed than any other I can think of, so that in the minds of most Americans, never having dealt in conflict with the agency, the F.B.I. is thought to be pristine.

Corruption begins with leadership.  If leaders didn't assume their offices already corrupt, then it begins with an organizational shift from mission to survival, self promotion, aggrandizement and growth.  Bureaucracies become paranoid over time, and decay typically begins with leaders who come to reward loyalty over competence.  That paradigm for success inevitably filters downward throughout the organization, excluding (perhaps) only the perennially virtuous and (perhaps) idealistic new-hires who have not yet learned how the game is played.


In the 1940s and 50s there was a popular CBS radio program called, The F.B.I. In Peace and War. [1] The introductory music was a stirring passage from Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges.  The series was based on a book, from which the radio title was taken, by Fredrick Lewis Collins. Published in 1943 with an introduction by no less than the esteemed J. Edgar Hoover.  Hoover, the first to hold the title of director of the agency, missed few chances during his long carreer to create and enhance the myth that the F.B.I. was infallible and incorruptable in the pursuit of criminals.  The American equivalent to the R.C.M.P.  Though he and his agency reportedly were not involved in the program cited, they did consult with the writers and producers of other popular radio programs featuring the F.B.I.  My point?  The Agency, more than most, has long been heavily invested in enhancing its image.

Beginning (but not ending, as recent reporting illustrates) with Herbert Hoover the FBI has a history of corruption and intimidation at the top. Hoover was a blackmailer, a bully and a consummate politician.  He ruled by fear, establishing a tradition that endures.  In recent years the agency has used Alinsky tactics to discredit organizations, factions and individuals deemed threatening or undesirable to the nation and agency alike.  Leaks during the Trump campaign and early presidency are often thought of as something new to the bureau, but, in fact, they have played an important role since the Hoover administration. [2]

CIA and DOJ -- next in line -- have long enjoyed the esteem and respect of the American people.  These were agencies that we counted on to do justice as most of us understand it.  To insure equality under the law and to ferret out abuses of power.  It is sickening to learn that these three (though by no means only those here discussed) once respected entities are, are and for some time have been, corrupt to the core.  Run by power-seeking narcissists who have no regard for the wreckage and ruin of innocent lives or the dissolution of a once robust and mostly honorable legal system based upon the great traditions of English Common Law.  Throughout most of the world's history, justice has been the handmaiden of power; neither blind nor weighing with an honest balance.  Classical, Church  and Anglo traditions have, in times and places, been historical exceptions.  In theory and practice American law, imperfect as it was, may have the best ever practiced until around the mid-twentieth century at both federal and state levels.  Increasingly it became infected with politics, money and the writing of bad legislation accompanied by worse interpretation.

Today -- and for some time -- the judiciary throughout the land, from the Supreme Court, federal, state and city courts is rife with corruption.  The most prestigious law firms are often partners with judges and prosecutors who know which side their bread is moneyed on.  Politics and money tend to drive the system.  Judges may rule with better appointments in mind, prosecutors motivated by aspiration to judgeships, law firm partnerships or elected office.  There are often cozy relationships between lawyers, officials, elected or appointed, and judges; between federal law enforcement and state and city courts.  Many lawyers -- most often aggressive prosecutors -- easily move from the carreer ladders of government to those of private practice and back.  This kind of lawfare incest does not rest easily with the rule of law.

How far down the line has corruption gone in the FBI?  We want to believe what many conservative pundits assure us -- that the problem exists exclusively at the level of upper management.  But, if that be true, it would seem that many field agents are willing enough to follow orders that punish and abuse the innocent or those in political disfavor who are guilty of innocuous infractions.  Coming to mind are the cases of Richard Jewel, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, Arthur Anderson, Martha Stewart, Scooter Libby.  To my knowledge, only the young agent Chad Joy, in principled response to the blatantly political and unethical prosecution of Ted Stevens, took exception as a whistleblower.  Despite government's vaunted protections, his career was shortly over.  Does anyone think that lesson went unnoticed inside the Bureau?
The unexpected election of Donald Trump and the predictable establishment outrage and backlash quickly opened up fissures in the walls that concealed the sorry workings of law enforcement, foreign and domestic.  FBI, CIA, Justice and State tipped their hands to invite scrutiny almost without precedent that allowed citizens a glimpse of systemic corruption that most believed must be a new thing.  It is not.  The cases cited in the prior paragraph are not old, but when you look at the orchestration of abuses there and in the Enron prosecutions begun in 2001, it is clear that these practices are unlikely to have sprung to life suddenly.

The principles of justice, proclaimed and applied, are essential to our confidence in government.  God bless us all.

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Readings that largely inform this essay include The Death of Common Sense by Philip K. Howard,
Three Felonies a Day by Harvey Silverglate and most recently, Licensed to Lie, by Sidney Powell.

1.  Click on link to one of the listed broadcast recordings and listen to the magisterial show introduction.
See also, Fredrick Lewis Collins' book, http://www.otrcommunity.com/Radio-Shows/FBI-Peace-and-War
2.  To be fair, the agency under Hoover's leadership was invaluable in establishing science-based forensics and real time evidence collection.  For years the bureau persuaded juries to convict on the basis that 'their science' was able to identify bullet fragments so as to trace them back to the manufacture and even production lot.  Proving after four decades to be specious, the methodology was abandoned.  At what cost?  Did the agency truly believe in the theory?