Former CIA Director John Brennan told James Comey, the former FBI Director, about Trump associates who had contacts with Russians, the reason being that he is suspicious of anyone who has such contacts. Brennan’s testimony two days ago revealed that he is a man whose suspicions are very easily aroused that some American may be treasonous or on a treasonous path or on a path to be bribed or induced to betray their country. This attitude is understandable in a man who spent 25 years in the CIA and who eventually headed it. He is heavily conditioned to look upon Russia and Russians with great suspicion and see them as attempting to corrupt Americans and undermine America. Even innocent contacts by Americans with Russians are for him nascent seeds of Russian treachery. When he saw what looked like a pattern of such contacts among Trump associates and even heard Trump say something good about Putin, his suspicions led him to inform the FBI, which handles domestic cases.
Brennan had no charge directly to alert or warn Trump’s associates to be on the lookout for slick Russian behavior or inquiries or deals that might trap them into betraying their country. However, he could have gotten the word to them to watch out in some way, as through the State Department. He didn’t. Maybe he thought these Americans were really subversives who needed to be investigated. But if he believed this, why did he instead warn the Russian spy chief?
“In testimony Tuesday morning before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, former CIA Director John Brennan described a tense phone call he had with the head of Russia’s security service in August 2016, during which he accused Russia of interfering in the presidential election.”
If Brennan warned the Russians, why not warn the Americans he thought were swimming in dangerous waters? If it was right to warn the Russians, why was it not right to alert the Trump associates or Trump himself?
Comey too was in a position to alert or warn people like Manafort, Page and Flynn or even Trump. He was in a position, if he didn’t want to do this directly, to do it indirectly through some other government agency. Mind you, Brennan and Comey had no evidence that Trump’s people were spies or colluding with spies or engaged in nefarious activities against the state; and we know of no such evidence today after 10 months of investigation. Mind you, Brennan was suspicious only because of the possibilities. He had no evidence.
Why didn’t Comey alert or warn those Americans that he and Brennan thought might be unknowingly placing themselves in a dangerous position with Russians? Why not do the common sense thing? The right thing? Why launch investigations of these people under the presumption that they are criminals? Why investigate when there really were no reasonable grounds for pressing charges or making a search of the dealings of these men? None of those grounds that have been published about these men for our perusal rise to the level of probable cause of crimes or even the loose category of conspiracy.
9:09 am on May 25, 2017
