By Mike Huckabee
November 14, 2024
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With Tulsi Gabbard’s strong commitment to freedom, individual rights and peace through strength, along with her military background (two tours in the Middle East with the National Guard), it was a foregone conclusion that President-elect Trump would find a choice spot for her in his second administration. That has happened, with Trump announcing Wednesday that she is his nominee for Director of National Intelligence (DNI). She’s an outstanding pick.
Relatively few Americans even know what the role of the DNI is, but it’s pivotal, especially at this time of reorganization and reform of the intel agencies. Yet most news stories about this, including the one linked to above, offer little clue as to what it’s for, so we’ll explain. First, the federal government has 18 (count ‘em) different intelligence agencies! We’re all familiar with the CIA, FBI and NSA, but there’s also the Defense Intelligence Agency for military intel and numerous others much more obscure. The State Department, Treasury Department and DEA have their own intelligence bureaus. The Army, Navy, Marine Corps., Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force each have their own intelligence offices. You can learn much more about this at the DNI website.
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/
Of course, part of the reform of the intelligence community will almost surely be to eliminate some of these and consolidate others, but in the meantime, the Office of the DNI is intended to be the go-between, the one who coordinates communication and intelligence sharing among all of them.
As DNI, Tulsi will be at the hub of all that. In theory at least, when, say, the CIA wants to work with the FBI on a particular investigation, they’re supposed to work through the DNI. (The CIA isn’t supposed to just go in and spy on Americans, you know --- only the FBI can do that, haha.)
On their website, they provide this capsule description of the DNI’s role: The DNI “serves as the head of the U.S. Intelligence Community, overseeing and directing the implementation of the National Intelligence Program and acting as the principal advisor to the President, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council for intelligence matters related to national security. Specific duties are outlined here…
https://www.dni.gov/index.php/
Obviously, for someone like Trump who himself has been targeted by multiple intelligence agencies and who wants to bring as much transparency as possible to their activities, the person in this job must be impeccably trustworthy. John Ratcliffe, Trump’s superb nominee for CIA Director, used to be the DNI himself. In Trump’s announcement on Tuesday, he said this about Ratcliffe:
“From exposing fake Russian collusion to be a Clinton campaign operation, to catching the FBI’s abuse of Civil Liberties at the FISA Court, John Ratcliffe has always been a warrior for Truth and Honesty with the American public. When 51 intelligence officials were lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop, there was one, John Ratcliffe, telling the truth to the American people.”
In 2020, Trump awarded Ratcliffe the National Security Medal, which is, Trump said, “the Nation’s highest honor for distinguished achievement in the field of intelligence and National Security.” Previously a Texas congressman, Ratcliffe really has been at the leading edge.
Investigative reporter Julie Kelly is liking what she sees at the DOJ, as she sees the “rats fleeing the ship” in anticipation of Trump’s allies coming in and the scales of justice having a chance to “recalibrate.”
For example, in an update on our “Special Counsel” Jack Smith story from Wednesday, he and his prosecution team confirmed they’ll be resigning before Trump takes office on January 20. It’s not yet clear whether or not Smith will file a confidential report summarizing their work, required under the DOJ’s rules for special counsels. Oh, well, Smith always seemed to make up his own rules. And he’s never really been a special counsel, anyway.
According to a story in THE NEW YORK TIMES, Smith now “finds himself on the defensive” (all together now: “Awwwww!!”). This is because, as we reported yesterday, Republicans Jim Jordan, House Judiciary chairman, and Barry Loudermilk, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, have told DOJ officials working on their two Trump cases to preserve all of their communications for investigators. (Of course, the House’s sham January 6 committee was supposed to preserve all their records, too, and they chose to destroy them instead, with no repercussions so far. I digress.) The NYT writers say this is “a sure sign that a new balance of power in Washington will make Mr. Smith among those being hunted by congressional investigators and others.”
Ah, we get what you’re saying, NYT writers. It’s the REPUBLICANS who are “hunting” now, simply for wanting accountability for the man who was hunting President Trump and exploiting the legal system in every twisted way possible to stop him from becoming President again.
As Kelly details, Smith “filed unprecedented federal indictments” against the President in Washington for the events of January 6 and in Florida “related to Trump’s alleged hoarding of national defense secrets,” but that his all-out pursuit of Trump is ending with “a whimper, not a bang.” This must surprise all the cable news hosts and so-called legal experts who, she says, “hung on Smith’s every move in court, salivating over the vision of the war-crimes prosecutor [that was Smith’s background] hauling their long-time nemesis off to the gulag in handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit.”
No, instead they’re going to see their “nemesis” re-inaugurated. And they won’t understand this, but if Smith turns out to be the one wearing an orange jumpsuit, it won’t be for “revenge” but for justice over his abuses of a defendant’s rights.
Rep. Jordan has also indicated that he may ask Smith to testify publicly, as Special Counsel Robert Mueller had to do after his investigation was over. (Remember how oddly confused Mueller appeared to be? It seemed that his second-in-command Andrew Weissmann might have been the actual leader.) From what she knows of Smith’s personality, Kelly anticipates that he “will lay bare his sense of superiority and air of imperviousness for all the world to see.”
She suggests they also interview Jay Bratt, who is also planning to beat a hasty retreat from the DOJ. Recall that Bratt is alleged to have threatened a defense attorney --- the one who was up for a judgeship? --- in the so-called “classified” documents case, to induce him to pressure his client to flip on Trump. Bratt also visited the Biden White House at least twice and is alleged to have pushed aggressively behind the scenes for the armed FBI raid on Mar-A-Lago, which he sure got.
Kelly goes on to note that, according to a story in POLITICO, DOJ employees are “terrified” over Trump’s return, with one attorney saying that department prosecutors are “losing their minds.” He said, “The fear is that career leadership and career employees everywhere are either going to leave or they’re going to be driven out.”
That’s exactly what needs to happen at the DOJ. And Trump isn’t even in office yet. This is what they’re calling “the Trump effect.” It’s like cockroaches scurrying to hide when the kitchen light comes on.
Prosecutors know they could be in big trouble over such abuses as withholding exculpatory evidence and violating the due process rights of J6 defendants, who often were detained for months and years without knowing the charges against them and without even being able to speak to their attorneys. As Kelly reports, “In June, the Supreme Court concluded the DOJ unlawfully applied 18 USC 1512(c)(2), obstruction of an official proceeding, in J6 cases but not before hundreds were charged and over 100 sent to prison.”
Then we have selective prosecution. Kelly writes that “no other group of political protesters in U.S. history has been subjected to the kind of federal charges levied against J6-ers.” No wonder these prosecutors are panicked; they know what they did. They might have thought they were safe, assuming they’d “get” Trump before he could come back and “get” them. But, again, a re-tooled DOJ “getting” them on things they actually did sounds more like justice, not vengeance.
https://www.declassified.live/
RELATED STORY: In a very different take on Trump’s new term, MSNBC intel expert Jeremy Bash (Dana Bash’s ex-husband and one of those 51 officials who signed the “classic earmarks” letter about Hunter’s laptop) said on Monday that he “expects” U.S. military and intelligence leaders to undermine President Trump and disobey orders if they decide they’re “unlawful” or “political.”
These are the “institutionalists,” he said, “who will apply “checks and balances.”
Oh, really? Are these the same checks and balances they used when they disregarded Trump’s authorization for 10,000 National Guard troops at the Capitol on January 6, which would have prevented the riot that they apparently really, really wanted to have?
You have to read this. This guy personifies the very attitude that has to be swept from the DOJ and the entire intelligence community.
MORE READING: For when you have time, Trump’s Agenda47 (not to be confused with “Project 2025,” which has nothing to do with Trump) lists point-by-point the actions Trump plans to take to dismantle the Deep State. They involve establishing a “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” to declassify and publish all documents on Deep State spying, censorship, and abuses of power. Transparency at last! Better prepare to be shocked.
And here’s a snippet of Victoria Taft’s interview with investigative reporter Lee Smith about it…
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2024/11/chipping-away-at-the-deep-state-it-s-already-starting-to-happen
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