From Putin to Trump to Bondi to Patel: what if it's worse than the U.S. making it easier for Russia to spy on us? By Hal M. Brown
Perhaps this is my flight of fancy from having watched too many spy shows, but it could be much, much worse.
Pam Bondi ends FBI effort to combat foreign influence in U.S. politics
Excerpts:
In a little-noticed directive on her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered a halt to a years-old federal law enforcement effort to combat secret influence campaigns by China, Russia and other adversaries that try to curry favor and sow chaos in American politics.
Buried on the fourth page of one of 14 policy memos Bondi issued Wednesday, the order disbands the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and pares back enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, despite years of warnings by U.S. intelligence agencies that foreign malign influence operations involving disinformation were a growing and dangerous threat.
It also states that criminal charges for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register when lobbying on behalf of a foreign nation, “shall be limited to instances of alleged conduct similar to more traditional espionage by foreign government actors.” The order adds that DOJ prosecutors instead “shall focus on civil enforcement, regulatory initiatives, and public guidance.”
A separate Bondi directive also disbanded efforts to seize the assets of Russian oligarchs, including Task Force Klepto Capture and the Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative.
Read the entire article to understand what a gift to Putin this is.
How did Pam Bondi even know to take actions which will make it easier for Russia to spy on the United States? This doesn’t seem to be something the former Attorney General of Florida would know about. She wouldn’t know this early in Trump’s administration that doing this would please him.
My assumption is that the order to do this came to Trump via Putin. As most people have assumed, Putin is fluent in English (reference) and I would hazard a guess that for many years has gotten a lot of practice talking frequently to Trump on the phone. I can hear him telling Trump that there wasn’t a chance in Hell he would let him claim credit for ending the war in Ukraine without granting him a shopping list of “favors.” It may have been more than a quid pro quo. It may have been a “do this, or else” and who knows what that “or else” would be.
No wonder Trump has been evasive when asked about the phone calls he had with Trump prior to and after the election. I doubt Trump could even come close to accurately counting the number of phone conversations he’s had with him dating back who knows how long.
Last night Rachel Maddow showed a series of clips of his being evasive when asked about this and his saying “I don’t want to say anything about that.”
When asked about his being cozy with Putin, Trump’s refrain is alway saying with distain “Russia, Russia, Russia” before he says what a discredited hoax the investigation into Russian interference in the election was. Anyone not brainwashed by Trump’s propaganda knows that Russia did try to influence the election.
What if it is worse than “merely” being what Bondi did? What if it is much, much worse?
Here are some “what ifs” which may sound like I’ve watched many, many spy shows (which I have) and believed everything they depicted was real (which I haven’t).
What if Putin also made a demand of Trump. that would not only make it easier for Russia to spy on the United States, but would also make it more difficult for the United States to spy on Russia?
What if Putin, who we all know is a former KGB agent, insisted that not only would Trump order the CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency (NSA, our cyber-spying agency) to stop spying on Russia, but that all of our agents currently operating in Russia be withdrawn? What he he said that any investigations of Russian operations in the United States be halted. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist or fan of long running TV show “The Americans” to be convinced that there are Russian spies operating in the United States. They may not be agents trained in a fake American village hidden away in the Russian countyside (like in The Amercians) so they could move to the States and pass for normal citizens.
The Russian embassies and consulates certainly have spies working there and like the U.S. they must have spies working out of NGO’s (Non-governmental agencies) and probably political action committees. This is on the CIA website. I am going to copy and save the text it in case they take it down. It is from Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 49 No.4 (2005). USG stand for US Government.
This was posted on X by a university professor:
I would think that the CIA was being remiss if they didn’t have agents or informants working overseas in some USAID programs. This may be another reason why Putin wanted the agency eliminated aside from that their programs aid our national security. He knows USAID is a major extension of our soft power in devloping countries.
Back to Trump’s pleasing Putin with the Bondi dismantling of some of our spycatching apparatus. This, as we now know, turned out to be a prelude to his selling out Ukraine yesterday, and his abrogating our role as the leader of the world’s democratic nations.
What if Putin went beyond that and told Trump that he must hand over the top secret files of information obtained as a result of our spying? These files would contain the names of agents including detailed information about how they operated. It would have the names of Russian officials who were their informants.
If this happened, even if our American agents were merely deported, whoever collaborated with them would be imprisoned, perhaps tortured, and very possibly killed. An example would have to be made of them.
Thinking about things like this is what keeps me up at night when I end up waking at midnight, lie in bed with my eyes wide open, and finally get up because I know I won’t sleep until I write what I want to say in my Substack.
Afterthought:
Putin may have assets or even agents in Trump's inner circle. You can guess as to who they might be. I won't speculate as to who they are, you can consider this yourself. They may be able to put ideas in Trump's mind or influence him, however Putin doesn't need them since he can call him on the phone any time he wants to.
Addendum:
Rachel Maddow had a 12 minute segment about the Bondi actions on her show last night, but she obvously didn’t go as far as I did. The segment is called “Who’s that good for?” In it she “connects the dots on Trumps’s behavior towards Russia.” You can watch it here.
If you don’t want to watch it, below are some screen grabs.
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Hal, this all makes horribly compelling and possibly correct assumptions. I think even more so based on what happened with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and the US voting with Russia at the UN. It really seems like Trump has overtly capitulated and abandoned America’s role as the guardian of democracy. I can see a lot of what you say unfolding perhaps quietly in the background without us becoming aware of the issues given who is now in charge of National Security, Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA. I am sure sanctions will soon be removed, all impounded or potentially impounded Russian assets will be returned and yes issues of security may be divulged. The harms being perpetrated and the damage that Trump has and will do not just to our democracy but to our entire way of life and well being are going to reverberate for years to come. He is most certainly setting us up for a cataclysm from which it may take decades to recover. The stupid electorate has allowed an evil monster with only a desire for personal power and wealth to rise to the position that he promised he would take - that of a dictator. It only takes one day to bring the castle to the ground as Kris Kristofferson once sang about in his song Darby’s Castle and just like that castle America is going to tumble to the ground. What benefit that will ultimately be to Trump I don’t know, but I don’t think that he ever imagined what harm he could do not just to America but even to himself. Just like all his businesses in the past, he just can’t help making a horrible mess of them. It’s all part of his psychopathology - the lack of self awareness and ability to really appreciate what his actions actually may result in happening. Of course none of this is of any consequence to us, the innocent citizens of the world, who will have to suffer the consequences of his cruel and pathological behavior.
This feels more like the US is being treated like a "distressed" company being sold off in parts by hedge fund managers. And Don and JD are not the managers, just the compliant staff.