As Americans and millions around the world sit transfixed by the news emerging from the Mueller investigation, one question seems glaringly absent.
How on God’s green earth did things ever get this far?
How did a “tough-on-crime” nation with the highest incarceration rate in the world miss what has all the appearances of the con of the century?
How is it only after he was elected president that the FBI got around to seriously investigating Donald J Trump?
How did a scam artist and colossal liar with a legendary reputation for fleecing the weak and vulnerable—a man mentored for years by a notorious "mob consigliere", who associated and did business with organized crime bosses, with unsavoury Russian oligarchs and the lowest dregs of America’s political cesspool—how did a guy like this elude major scrutiny by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the IRS, gambling regulators and every other major police agency for his entire adult life?
Could it all be pure chance or a heretofore unseen fidelity to ethics and integrity?
If the Mueller investigation seems a mere heartbeat away from tipping its hand that Trump himself has now come under criminal investigation, there could hardly be better news.
But seriously, where have they been?
Just why did the New York office of the FBI, knowing what it must about Donald Trump, commit enormous resources over the course of the election investigating Hillary Clinton and the discredited claims of Breitbart-linked Clinton Cash? Did Trump’s long-time friend and campaign advisor Rudy Giuliani or others exert undue influence inside that office?
What could have possibly possessed former FBI director Jim Comey to blaze open a wholly specious and baseless new email scandal, while suppressing his real knowledge of the vastly more dangerous Russian efforts to elect Donald Trump?
Whether by accident or design, there are still layers upon layers to the history and mystery of Trump’s relationship with US law enforcement. Many people have known a very great deal for a long time.
While there are still so many unpredictable directions the Mueller investigation could go, one wonders if it has the fortitude to turn inward, and ask some of the toughest questions of all.
Comments
At last, the so-obvious question gets asked in print!
As well as law enforcement agencies MIA, one wonders about news agencies. Was Trump too well-protected by his litigious nature or by powerful ties? I can't believe the former since being sued is hardly rare in the journalism world. Stories about Trump and his dealings never seem to get to the basement. Portrayed as dodgy but not scum.
All through the election the media boosted Trump's message of paranoid egomania and arrogance into everyone's living rooms. They were his cheer leaders. Bernie got zip in coverage; his followers were not given press time, nor was he. I blame them for the unbelievably self-destructive path the US is now on. As for the FBI...who ever thought they were impartial, smart, discerning and untainted???? Nobody.
I admit to not knowing about the Mueller investigation, but I have found many answers and explanations in Naomi Klein's latest book, "No Is Not Enough", which she penned in the after-shock of the U. S. election.