Will the FBI snap because of Trump?

(NEW YORK MAGAZINE)

By Benjamin Hart

President Trump escalated his war against the FBI over the weekend, again accusing the agency of bias and sarcastically commenting on the departure of its deputy director.

Trump’s tweets are part of a broader Republican effort to impugn the law-enforcement agency — not traditionally known as a hotbed of liberal sentiment — over accusations of bias against the president. In doing so, Trump and his GOP allies in government and media also hope to undermine the investigation into Russian electoral interference by special counsel Robert Mueller, the former head of the FBI. The overarching strategy of sowing doubt could obviate the need for Trump to fire Mueller altogether, which would set off a firestorm.

Trump’s unceasing broadsides against the FBI serve as valuable data for one of the big open questions observers asked when he took office: Are American institutions sturdy enough to withstand an all-out assault from a president who would rather be an authoritarian than the leader of a republic?

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For the agency, the answer is getting a little less clear. It has hardly been purged of everyone suspected of harboring #resistance sympathies. But on Thursday, FBI director Christopher Wray announced that top FBI lawyer James Baker, an ally of former director James Comey and a target of GOP attacks, had been reassigned, much to Comey’s chagrin. Then, on Saturday, FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, whom Trump has been criticizing for more than a year, announced that he would retire when he became eligible for his pension next year.

Wray had been expected to appoint his own top staff when he became director in May, and McCabe’s departure was not unexpected. But the timing of Baker’s reassignment struck many as a sign that the agency might be beginning to crack under Republican pressure.

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