FBI Director strikes back at Donald Trump, hires prosecutor Trump just tried to get rid of

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now


Last night we learned that Donald Trump tried and failed to get FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Wray not only refused, he threatened to resign. Trump backed off, and everyone kept their jobs. It was a clear sign that Trump knows he no longer has the muscle to fire or even order around anyone involved with the Trump-Russia investigation. Now Wray is using Trump’s weakness to strike back by hiring someone who Trump just finished forcing out.

Wray has hired former U.S. Attorney Dana Boente as the new General Counsel for the FBI, according to the Washington Post and other major media outlets (link). For some inexplicable reason, the mainstream media is completely mischaracterizing Boente and his relationship with Trump. In reality, Boente played a key role in the prosecution of Michael Flynn in the Eastern Virginia District, which helped lead to Flynn’s eventual plea deal. In December, Trump finally figured out Boente wasn’t playing for his team, and forced him to retire.

Make no mistake: the FBI Director is flexing his muscles here, and working to build up the FBI’s defenses against Trump and his cronies. Trump just finished pushing Boente out of the picture, and now the FBI is installing Boente in a key role. Trump is now too weak to take any real punitive action against the FBI, and he knows it, and now the FBI knows it.

So why is the mainstream media botching this story so badly? It may be a result of how President Obama tricked Donald Trump regarding Dana Boente. Just before leaving office, Obama demoted Boente in the Department of Justice line of succession. This led Trump to conclude that Boente was anti-Obama, and prompted Trump to promote Boente even higher in the line of succession. Boente then spent all of 2017 helping with the prosecution of Michael Flynn in his district, before Trump finally figured out he’d been had. Some in the media still don’t appear to have figured it out.

Attention Palmer Report readers: sign up for our free mailing list here
-----
Note from Bill Palmer: if each of you reading this can kick in $10 or $25, it'll help keep Palmer Report firing on all cylinders at this crucial time in our nation's history: Donate now