The FBI Scandal – Commentary
But the furious denials were misleading. To paraphrase a cliché from 2016, Trump s tweet should have been taken seriously, not literally. Obama did not tap Trump s phones. But his FBI did spy on Trump s campaign. That fact is no longer in dispute. The question is whether the FBI was justified in treating the Trump campaign itself as a suspect in this crime against the 2016 election.
The answer is messy. A comprehensive survey of all available information about the matter shows there were grounds in the summer of 2016 for American intelligence and law-enforcement officials at the FBI to turn their attention to the peculiar behavior of some Trump campaign advisers. But as the bureau learned more about them, it should have reassessed its theory of the case. Indeed, it was obliged to do so by law, and custom, and elementary standards of fairness.