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By David Boddiger / 12.23.2017
At some point in recent history, the self–professed party of law and order has turned into the party of politicizing and smearing some of the country’s top law enforcement officials. It’s a mystifying phenomenon to watch, although not that difficult to understand.
It’s also very slimy.
The latest chapter involves the FBI’s top lawyer, James Baker, who is being reassigned at the bureau, as first reported this week by The Washington Post. The sanitized version of this reassignment is that new FBI Director Christopher Wray is staffing his own team after President Donald Trump fired former director James Comey last May.
Comey and Baker worked closely together at the bureau, and Baker is one of three FBI witnesses who can confirm that Trump tried to strong–arm Comey into dropping his investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn has since flipped and is now a government witness for special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe.
Comey resisted the president’s overtures on Flynn, and Trump even admitted on national television that he had fired Comey over that “Russia thing.”
A second witness Comey confided in at the FBI about Trump’s attempt to influence the Flynn investigation is FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. In two closed–door sessions before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary committees this week, McCabe was grilled on everything from the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email servers to what Comey had told him about Trump, and how the FBI used the infamous British intelligence dossier on Trump.
In the first closed–door session on Tuesday, Baker accompanied McCabe. This is where it gets weird, because GOP lawmakers began attacking Baker, accusing him of having been a source for Mother Jones reporter David Corn, who broke the Trump dossier story in October 2016. That accusation was so potentially damaging—and apparently untrue—that Corn broke with journalistic tradition and publicly and unequivocally said Baker was not his source for the story.
But in the world of Trump and modern-day Republicans who love to gaslight, the truth no longer matters—the accusations themselves are enough.
Despite Corn’s defense of Baker, Politico published a story on Saturday titled, “Top FBI official linked to reporter who broke Trump dossier story.”
According to that story:
House Republicans are investigating contact between the FBI’s top lawyer and a Mother Jones reporter in the weeks before the left-leaning outlet broke the first news story about the existence of a disputed dossier alleging ties between President Donald Trump and the Kremlin, according to two congressional GOP sources who described documents linking the two men.
The GOP sources said the documents — made available recently to lawmakers by the Department of Justice — revealed that James Baker, the FBI’s general counsel, communicated with Mother Jones reporter David Corn in the weeks leading up to the November 2016 election. Corn was the first to report the existence of the dossier on Oct. 31 and that it was compiled by a former high-level western spy.
“I’m not going to discuss my sources. But in order to prevent the dissemination of inaccurate information, I will say that James Baker was not my source for this story,” Corn told Politico.
Here is another important paragraph from the Politico story:
During the closed-door session, Republicans grilled McCabe about who at the department was authorized to talk to the media. One Republican at Tuesday’s intelligence committee interview with McCabe laid out a “hypothetical” example of the FBI’s general counsel meeting with a Mother Jones reporter.
Needless to say, it was more than clear where Republicans were going with this line of questioning. Baker didn’t return for a second day of questioning two days later.
In light of the most recent effort by Republicans to undermine the credibility of Mueller, the FBI, and anyone even remotely associated with the Russia probe, friends, former colleagues, and even Comey himself took to social media to defend Baker’s track record, his history of service, and his integrity.
“Sadly, we are now at a point in our political life when anyone can be attacked for partisan gain. James Baker, who is stepping down as FBI General Counsel, served our country incredibly well for 25 years & deserves better. He is what we should all want our public servants to be,” Comey tweeted on Friday night.
Sadly, we are now at a point in our political life when anyone can be attacked for partisan gain. James Baker, who is stepping down as FBI General Counsel, served our country incredibly well for 25 years & deserves better. He is what we should all want our public servants to be.
— James Comey (@Comey) December 23, 2017
Lawfare Editor–in–Chief Benjamin Wittes tweeted a 10–part thread explaining Baker’s role in bringing down the wall between the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies post–9/11.
“He is not, whatever the fever swamp may be concocting about him, a partisan,” Wittes wrote. “I have known him for a long time. I have no idea what his politics are except some vague sense that they are moderate of some variety. He has worked comfortably in administrations of both parties.
“He is one of the most deeply respected national security law practitioners out there. The very best of the very best think of him as a peer.”
Ten things you actually should know about FBI General Counsel James Baker, removed this week by Chris Wray—all of them actually true.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
1) He was the counsel for intelligence policy at the Justice Department—which was the office that ran FISA warrants before NSD—in the period just after 9/11.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
2) This was an incredibly grueling and tremendously important role that put him at the center of the process of bringing the warrantless wiretapping program under the FISA. It was also a role pivotal in bringing down the Wall between intelligence and law enforcement.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
3) He is not, whatever the fever swamp may be concocting about him, a partisan. I have known him for a long time. I have no idea what his politics are except some vague sense that they are moderate of some variety. He has worked comfortably in administrations of both parties.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
4) He is one of the most deeply respected national security law practitioners out there. The very best of the very best think of him as a peer.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
5) He is not a leaker. The idea is just silly to anyone who knows him.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
6) He has been a mentor to lot of extremely fine people. A while back, he emailed me to ask me if—as a favor to him—I would mean with a protege of his, then in law school, to help think through how to run a journal. I agreed. @togawamercer is now managing editor of @lawfareblog.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
7) @togawamercer is not alone. A great many young people have benefited from his teaching at @Harvard_Law—even while he was in government—over the years. They are devoted to him. That should tell you more than what anonymous House Republicans tell @politico.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
8) Yes, he is part of a close-knit circle of people who are close to Jim Comey. That group—from Chuck Rosenberg to Dan Richman to Jim to others—are all major figures in their own rights. It says a lot about Comey that he attracts these people—and that they stay with him years.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
9) Chris Wray has reassigned him to advise on “strategic projects”—which is almost surely code for warehousing and marginalizing him within the context of civil service rules that protect him.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
10) Jim Baker is an altogether kind and decent human being.
My strategic project advice for Wray is to stop buying yourself time with Trump and Congressional Republicans at the expense of such people.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 23, 2017
All of this comes in the wake of other coordinated attacks against the FBI and law enforcement officials by Trump and his GOP supporters in Congress. Many fear that Trump will use this to fire Mueller as the dragnet tightens around the president and his inner circle.
Setting that aside for the moment, at face value, these types of continued attacks—at the very least—are obtuse, obstructionist, and downright un–American. Or, should we say, they’re very Republican.
Originally published by Splinter News under a Creative Commons license from Gawker Media.