In Deep: The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth about America's "Deep State"

by David Rohde

Sondland said the efforts were known to Vice President Pence, Secretary of State Pompeo, former national security advisor John Bolton, and other senior members of the administration. He testified that Giuliani “was expressing the desire of the President of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the President.” Sondland read aloud from emails that he said confirmed that State Department officials and senior officials in the White House were “all informed about the Ukraine efforts” and that “everyone was in the loop.”

Democrats saw Trump as an existential threat to American democracy. Hurd saw Trump as amateurish and misguided.

Horowitz’s work showed that the government’s secretive surveillance process required significant reform. But the report found that the opening of the probe was legally justified, and said investigators found no evidence of political bias.

Barr, in a violation of long-standing DOJ policy, disputed Horowitz’s conclusions.

part of us being well protected against malign foreign influence is to build together an American public that’s resilient, that has appropriate media literacy, and that takes its information with a grain of salt.”

Politicians have a vested interest in dividing Americans. If the polarization continues, I increasingly fear it could spark political violence. Members of Congress from both parties told me that they are receiving growing numbers of death threats.

Trump is following the playbook he has deftly used since entering politics—spreading conspiracy theories about his rivals while shrouding his own actions in secrecy. If a “deep state” is a group of officials who secretly wield government power with little accountability or transparency, Trump and his loyalists increasingly fit that definition. Rudy Giuliani has served as a private envoy of the president who carries out a secret foreign policy outside government channels. He is not a government official, nor subject to government ethics rules, nor subject to questioning by Congress. Fox News host Sean Hannity has served as a private communications arm of the White House, holding late-night phone conversations with the president, acting as one of his informal advisors, and passionately promoting him on-air. The president, after consulting with unidentified aides and supporters, demands that the Justice Department investigate officials and corporations he views as enemies and aid those he considers allies. Top White House aides defy congressional subpoenas and refuse to answer questions under oath. Past presidents claimed that some White House communications were subject to executive privilege, but not all of them.