I have begin reading this book, it's fascinating, but several of these observations come after listening to a Lawfare podcast and other reviews. My full review will follow when I finish the book.
The author, Peter Strozek, former FBI agent, lays out the case that Trump has put himself into a compromised position with regard Putin and Russia in a way that gives them leverage over him. One prosaic example is Trump's repeated statements that he had no business dealings with Russia. At the same time he was making those statements, Michael Cohen and others on his behalf, as documented by both Cohen's book and the Mueller Report, we know that Cohen et al, were trying to make a deal with the Russia for business. Now Putin knew that Trump was lying when he said that and could prove it if he wanted to. That gave him a hold over Trump. Eric Trump is also on record as saying they could get all the money they needed from Russia. David Enrich's book about Deutsche Bank also cited instances of the bank laying off Trump's personally guaranteed loans to a Russian bank run by the KGB. All of these factors make it clear that Trump is beholden to Putin and explains why he refuses to say anything negative about Russia or its dictator.
This has implications way beyond just ethics. It undercuts national security. Pulling troops out of Syria which is buying weapons from Russia and undercutting the Kurds was not in America's interest, rather Russia's. Draw your on conclusions about leverage.
Now imagine a foreign power who has access to emails, taping conversations, sophisticated cyber abilities, and who can get access to all sorts of things Trump is trying to hide and the leverage on his policies and behavior becomes enormous.
The compromised figure acts behalf of the adversary rather than his country because it's also in his own interests as well. He dare not provide Putin. Strzok points out that investigations are questions to which they seek answers. They never investigated Trump. They were always seeking to find out what the Russians were doing to subvert our country, especially through the electoral process. But they kept finding links to the Trump campaign almost wherever they looked. Several of those people are now in jail.
It's important to remember that the FBI told the "Gang of Eight" (House and Senate leaders) that they were about to open an investigation into Trump. They presented the reasons why, and none-- none -- of them raised any concerns. It's also clear that the Intelligence Committee, full of Republicans and Democrats signed off, with nary a concern, on their report, that detailed much of the potential leverage points.
To concerns that the FBI was interested only in minutia and process crimes, i.e. obstructions, and it doesn't amount to much, Strzok replies you have to start with Russia, and they intervened in 2016 to help Trump and hurt Clinton; the Trump campaign knew about it and encouraged it, causing the ultimate result given the slim margins in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. I would quibble with that given that Jill Stein's campaign about the same difference in votes (80,000 or so) and that Clinton ran such a miserable campaign, totally taking those states for granted. Comey's October charges about the email server, which ultimately led nowhere, might have also made a difference.
After Decades of public service in the FBI working in counter-intelligence Strzok was Investigated by the Department of Justice and assailed by President Trump for the texts Strzok, he lost his privacy, reputation and job. “After a quarter of a century in pursuit of the nation’s enemies,” he writes, “I had been deemed an enemy myself.” The early part in which he details the investigations into Russian assets in the U.S. (The Americans TV Series was based on these investigations) reads like a spy novel. He apparently says little about the affair, but is anger at the DOJ for leaking the private emails is obvious. James Stewart has more to say. (see below).
Was all this a sophisticated conspiracy? Strzok says not. Instead it was a bunch of incompetent bumblers, but it's precisely that which gave the Russians so much leverage. The business connections weren't enough; it was the lying about them that gave the Russians power. “The compromised liar need not be told what to do,” Strzok explains. “It all unspools without anyone’s ever having to say a word.” Trump’s extramarital affairs, his uncharitable charities and his murky financial background — all such deceptions also compromise him “badly and in a myriad of ways,” Strzok contends.
This is an important book and in another of those great ironies would never have been written or read had not the Trump people make such a fuss over a couple of personal emails he wrote to a close friend. They made no such fuss over similar emails that supported Trump. Just because Trump and his folks can't made decisions without personal animosity entering into it, doesn't mean that thousands of professionals go about their business in a non-partisan manner. Of course, had Trumpites nothing to hide it would have made no difference anyway. But the FBI probably failed, in my book, by allowing Comey to politicize the investigations: revealing the Clinton email server (the technical discussion about that server make me laugh hysterically -- it shows such technical ignorance on the part of the media), but said nothing about the Trump investigations.
Note that James Stewart has a book with details of the affair Strzok had with Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer. He notes that with regard to bias on the part of Strzok,
"We had this extraordinary situation where the FBI is investigating both major candidates. One of the questions I wanted to answer in the book was, why was the Clinton one public, but we never heard about Russia?
But if they had wanted to derail Trump, one leak would have crushed that campaign — not only a leak that it was going on, but a leak of some of the salacious details, which we now know were being investigated.
The DOJ report about the emails said: "
“The lapses in judgment embodied in those messages and others like them risked undermining public confidence in two of the Bureau’s highest-profile investigations,” the DOJ told the court on Monday. “And even more broadly, those lapses in judgment risked damaging the public trust in the FBI as a nonpartisan, even-handed, and effective law enforcement institution — trust that is essential to the FBI’s ability to vigorously enforce the nation’s laws without fear or favor.” All true but hard to take seriously when Trump has shown even worse lapse in judgment and his clear bias probably had more to do with the firing than anything on Strzok's part. It was, after all, the release of the emails that might undermine confidence of the public, not their mere existence.
see Deep State byJames Stewart (a favorite author) and The Washington Examiner's story.
Strzok filed a wrongfultermination lawsuit against the DOJ that claims his First Amendment rights were violated.
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