If anyone needs to realize the extent to which Never-Trump’ers will go to hobble a duly elected but undesirable president, David French’s NRO article will spell it out for them.
Based entirely on a false premise, he nevertheless makes the case that the FBI was in the right initiating investigations into President Trump…’cuz Ronald Reagan said ‘ok’.
Boiled down, there was this 1981 executive order which, French claims, gives the FBI the right to violate the U.S. Constitution and its checks-&-balances system by doing their own version of ‘checks’ on the very Executive branch leader who is their boss.
Specifically, the e.o. reads (Sec. 1.7, g):
(g) INTELLIGENCE ELEMENTS OF THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION. Under the supervision of the Attorney General and pursuant to such regulations as the Attorney General may establish, the intelligence elements of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shall:
(1) Collect (including through clandestine means), analyze, produce, and disseminate foreign intelligence and counterintelligence to support national and departmental missions, in accordance with procedural guidelines approved by the Attorney General, after consultation with the Director;
(2) Conduct counterintelligence activities; and
(3) Conduct foreign intelligence and counterintelligence liaison relationships with intelligence, security, and law enforcement services of foreign governments or international organizations in accordance with sections 1.3(b)(4) and 1.7(a)(6) of this order.
Beyond the fact that executive orders cannot overturn, or otherwise be in violation of our U.S. Constitution, we emphasized ‘national missions’ because, guess what…?
President Trump defines the national missions. (That being said, and false premise aside, the FBI has no right to decide how a president defines the ‘national mission’.)
So, if anyone wants to read a couple thousand wasted words using a false premise to justify ILLEGAL activities of the FBI, feel free…but the end result remains the same…
…it’s a FALSE PREMISE…but it is a very good insight…
…into how far a Never-Trump’er goes to hate on this President.