Imagine if President George Bush, in his first news conference after the September 11 attacks, had blamed them on President Clinton, President Carter, and DEI. The country would have been outraged. Trump did exactly that by blaming President Obama, President Biden, and DEI for the horrific crash that occurred when a military helicopter crashed into a passenger jet last week over Washington, DC. At the time Trump made his comments, they were still pulling the bodies out of the Potomac River. When questioned about his DEI claim, Trump admitted that he had no proof, but it was common sense. That is pure nonsense.
There is a DEI problem. It is with the Trump administration where competence is not an important qualification. What the hearings of Kash Patel, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard have shown is that they are the DEI hires. They are Deplorable, Egotistical, and Incompetent. It was amazing to watch Patel try to avoid addressing his prior comments. I was waiting for him to take the Fifth Amendment like he did in the grand jury in the Trump document case. Kennedy refused to admit that vaccines do not cause autism, and Gabbard, who has supported Edward Snowden, who released sensitive files and is now living in Russia, refused to call him a traitor.
Now to my main topic. We are now in an upside-down world, where the criminals are the victims and heroes and those who investigate them and prosecute them are the villains and have to lose their jobs. This is happening without a peep from Republicans, the self-proclaimed law-and-order party.
On January 27, twelve prosecutors who worked on Jack Smith’s team in prosecuting Trump were fired by the acting attorney general.
On January 28, about two dozen prosecutors who prosecuted the January 6, 2021, criminal cases were fired by the acting deputy attorney general. In addition, eight FBI executives who were involved in the January 6 cases were fired. Also, the deputy acting attorney general asked the acting head of the FBI Brian Driscoll for a list of employees who worked on the January 6 cases by Tuesday. The clear purpose is to do to them what the Trump administration has done to the prosecutors and executive staff at the FBI.
Driscoll’s response was to point out that he and the deputy director are two among thousands of employees involved in the January 6 cases. He also responded in an internal memo to FBI employees that “As we’ve said since the moment we agreed to take on these roles, we are going to follow the law, follow FBI policy, and do what’s in the best interest of the workforce and the American people — always.” That was interpreted by many as telling the deputy to get his own list. Driscoll’s name is not listed as acting attorney general on the FBI website. Clearly his response is bothering the “yes men” in Trump world. Patel pretended that he knew nothing about this. Does anyone think that Patel will stick up for his agents like Driscoll did?
The FBI agent’s association put out a statement that “Dismissing potentially hundreds of agents would severely weaken the Bureau’s ability to protect the country from national security and criminal threats and will ultimately risk setting up the Bureau and its new leadership for failure.”
Does anyone really think that any of this will make the country safer or the agencies less political? It shows that if you want to keep your job, you better keep your hands off Trump or any of his supporters; only Democrats and non-Trumpian Republicans are fair game.
The purge has begun, and where it ends no one knows. The majority of American people did not take Trump seriously when he threatened retribution. They should now.
Warren S. Hecht is a local attorney. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
