Spies in the Ointment: Which Way Will FBI, CIA Swing if Trump Returns?

To the growing anxiety about the possibility of a triumphal Donald Trump return to office, we can add yet another worry line: How would the recalcitrant former president mobilize the intelligence agencies to punish enemies and reward friends?   

With pro-Trump Republicans increasingly embracing “any means necessary” to retake control of Washington, from extreme gerrymandering to new voter suppression laws—and poised to capture Congress in the mid-terms—apprehension is growing among veterans of  U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that bad times may be ahead for them.

The former president won’t be shy this time around about installing sycophants atop key national security organs, starting with the Defense, Justice and Homeland Security departments, along with the CIA, NSA and most critically, the FBI, intelligence veterans queried by SpyTalk agree.  The lesson he’s likely learned from his first term is not to vaccilate over putting overt authoritarian loyalists into senior bil…