#8 CNN walked this story back. So I am walking my butt bump comment back as well.
Why Trump's FBI head Christopher Wray urged withholding the Nunes memo
The first thing Wray must do is avoid the trap of taking any actions that could be successfully contested. Even though the executive levels of the FBI do not enjoy civil service protections, they have promoted and placed staff allies with those protections at critical organizational positions. Those allies can slow walk desired actions, bottle up critical information (that can set-up the CEO for embarrsment and failure), and resist him in countless ways that will not be discovered for a long time, if ever.In order to combat these moles, Wray's principal counter-weapon has to be the mainstream FBI professionals, the ones who genuinely are committed to truth, justice and the American way, the ones who are embarrassed and appalled at what they have seen of the corruption. They are the ones who can spot the “resistance” forces, call out their activities, and counteract their politicization. There are a lot of long knives that start to be unsheated when careers are imperiled.
The most important weapon in mobilizing these allies is the powerful culture of the FBI, a culture that sustains the dedication expected of FBI professionals. He has to reinforce the positive aspects of that culture and turn them to the goals he and President Trump hold: removing politics from their operations and uncovering the abuses that have taken place since the poltiicization of the Obama years.
One of the foundations of the FBI’s organizational culture ever since founder J. Edgar Hoover’s days has been the imperative to avoid embarrassing the Bureau. Since uncovering corruption inevitably will embarrass the FBI, it is important that Wray establish the principle that only provable misconduct will be revealed and then punished. He must be seen not as a wrecking ball, but as someone who will restore the FBI’s standing and win back public trust by being totally honest, while protecting innocents from false accusations.
In this context, his reported urging of redaction of names in the Nunes memo can be seen as an effort to protect the good guys, not shield the bad guys. Don’t forget The Nunes memo is not the last word, for the Horowitz Inspector General’s report is going to be issued in a matter of weeks. Any shielding at this point is a short term act.
The task ahead for Wray includes moving moles out of their critical positions, firing those that can be fired for misconduct (a long and difficult process), and moving and de-fanging the others, while moving allies into positions where they can do the nitty gritty of cleaning up the messes. Those allies have to know that he has their back. An FBI Director who seemed eager to jump the gun and embarrass the agency without due process might have a much tougher time persuading people down the organization chart to take some career risks to help his reforms along over the opposition of powerful entrenched opponents currently in positions to retaliate against them.
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