Fisa Judges: Incurious, Incompetent or Bent?

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My confidence in governments' legal goings-on (vis-a-vis private citizens) at the federal, state and local levels had been shaken long before the revelations growing out of the 2016 elections.  Readings I had done [1] over recent years had left me, if not cynical, highly skeptical of America's legal system. That skepticism, ranging from city, county and district courts to state and federal ones to include the U.S. Supreme Court and the often too-cozy collaboration between law enforcement and prosecutors.  In short, the growing political corruption of the justice system now appears to be a given.  Although I have long believed that to some extent justice is the handmaiden of power, I perceive that things worsen over time.  With that context in mind, the reader will understand why I pose the title question along with others.

The F.B.I. Came by Corruption Honestly

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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.

To FBI Rank and File: Balls in Your Court?

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For a time the Bureau's politically tainted and cursory, pro-forma investigation of Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation, was prominently in the news.  As the narrative goes, honest, dedicated, hard-working agents are hugely frustrated and angry on account of the fact that no one has been held accountable for what is manifestly criminal behavior.  Was Justice caught peeking?