David French
Dec. 1,
2024, 12:28 p.m. ETDec. 1, 2024
David French Opinion Columnist
Kash
Patel’s Threat to the Rule of Law
The perfect
expression of the authoritarian approach to the rule of law comes from a former
Peruvian president, Óscar Benavides: “For my friends, everything; for my
enemies, the law.” The truly corrupted legal system combines impunity for the
ruling class with punitive repression of political dissent.
When Jack
Smith moved to dismiss his federal cases against Donald Trump, that clearly
signaled Trump’s impunity. It was a representation of the adage that might
makes right. He won, so he now enjoys a privilege from prosecution.
The
selection of Kash Patel to lead the F.B.I. — a move that would require firing
or forcing the resignation of Christopher Wray, the current F.B.I. director,
well before the end of his 10-year term — demonstrates Trump’s commitment to
repression and revenge.
Patel is the
ultimate Trump loyalist. I strongly recommend reading Elaina Plott Calabro’s
profile of Patel in The Atlantic. Much of her reporting was based on interviews
with Patel’s former colleagues in the first Trump administration.
“Patel was
dangerous,” Calabro wrote, summarizing their thoughts, “not because of a
certain plan he would be poised to carry out if given control of the C.I.A. or
F.B.I., but because he appeared to have no plan at all — his priorities today
always subject to a mercurial president’s wishes tomorrow.”
Patel is so
absurdly devoted to Trump that he wrote a children’s book about Trump, called
“The Plot Against the King,” in which he describes the Russia investigation as
a plot by “Hillary Queenton” against “King Donald.”
In December
2023, he told Trump’s former adviser Steve Bannon, “We’re going to come after
the people in the media who lied about American citizens who helped Joe Biden
rig presidential elections.”
“We’re going
to come after you,” he continued, “whether it’s criminally or civilly. We’ll
figure that out.”
To be clear,
this isn’t conventional tough-on-crime language. He’s not telling criminals
that he’s coming after them. Instead, he’s clearly targeting people who blocked
Trump’s illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Biden did
not rig a presidential election. Trump lost.
The danger
to the rule of law is magnified by the circumstances. Wray is a Trump
appointee, and his term doesn’t end until 2027. The only reason to replace him
is to find someone who is more responsive to Trump.
Trump has
clearly learned the lessons of his first term. When he nominates establishment
Republicans, they’ll often (but not always) resist his worst and most
unconstitutional impulses. Even Bill Barr, his second hand-picked attorney
general, drew the line when Trump tried to steal the 2020 election.
But now he’s
nominating people who possess few, if any, moral lines at all. The danger of
Patel isn’t primarily his ideology; it’s his loyalty. He is, as Calabro wrote,
“the man who will do anything for Donald Trump.”
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