The most dangerous members of the internal embedded resistance to President Donald J. Trump reside in the many unelected bureaucrats who are silently taking actions to sabotage the Trump agenda. Although the left likes to make fun of those who reference the “deep state” in the intelligence community, the evidence is strong that the intelligence leadership, and some in the law enforcement community, actively tried to thwart the candidacy of Trump and undermine the agenda.
The idea of the “deep state” is that there are elements in the federal government that do not answer to the people. The intelligence community has been the primary offender in recent years, but unelected bureaucrats in the military or law enforcement community could also play a role. The usual offenders are people at the upper echelons of government who feel like they can do whatever they want with little likelihood they will ever get caught. This is not a tin foil hat conspiracy theory, it is fact, and we have witnessed evidence of resistance to the election of President Trump within the Trump administration over the past few years.
A few examples from the intelligence and law enforcement community show the damage the “deep state” has inflicted on democracy. President Trump argued that Former FBI Director James Comey leaked classified information and lied to Congress while conducting an investigation into Hillary Clinton in a way that assumed, she was going to win the presidency. The smoking gun came on July 5, 2016, when then Director Comey announced that no charges would be brought against Clinton despite the fact that she had compromised national security with a home brew private server email system that was set up to avoid disclosure of public records to the American public.
Candidate Trump tweeted at the time, “FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem.” Comey showed his anger towards Trump by writing a tell all book that tossed a number of allegations against his former boss, breaking a longstanding tradition of former federal law enforcement agents from staying out of politics. The book is strong evidence of the anti-Trump bias that Comey carried with him in the FBI.
Former FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who worked on the Russia investigation, and FBI Agent Lisa Page engaged in some texting that showed a strong “deep state” bias against Donald J. Trump. According to reports, Page wrote in a text, “Trump is ‘not ever going to become president, right? Right?!’” to which Strzok replied, “‘No. No he’s not. We’ll stop it.’” There is no reasonable reading of this exchange other than to believe that Strzok would use his power at the FBI to stop Trump from ever becoming president.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, before becoming a well-paid Never-Trump talking head on CNN, was caught lying before Congress on March 12, 2013. Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Democratic Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden asked, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions of hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper responded, “No sir.” That proved to be perjury and a lie. Former NSA employee Edward Snowden claimed that he was moved to disclose classified information about the warrantless surveillance of American citizens because of Clapper’s lie under oath. Clapper was never punished for his violation of the law yet was rewarded with a platform to use his knowledge of classified information to attack Trump from the platform of CNN.
Another man who was handsomely rewarded for Never-Trump activism is former CIA Director John Brennan. This is a man who, since he has left office, has worn his bias on his sleeve. When the president appeared at a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brennan claimed that the press conference was “nothing short of treasonous.” Just before the midterm elections, Brennan showed his left leaning political bias when he tweeted “In this election, those who stand with Trump must be defeated.” And this is a man who disclosed that he voted for a communist for president when he was young. Since leaving office, Brennan has shown repeatedly that he was unfit for office.
The “deep state” uses the strategy of death by a thousand cuts. The FBI and intelligence community are supposed to be above politics, yet some of the leadership used power for partisan ends. They ignored the will of the millions of Americans who voted for the Donald J. Trump presidency, and they did so for book deals and cable talking head gigs. They still hate the president. There are likely others who have embedded themselves into power in a way that makes it hard to find them.
The “deep state” exists, and it is a real danger to our republic.
Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) is co-author with David Bossie (@David_Bossie) of “Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency.“
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
