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Or, for that matter, the very idea that the F.B.I. is dedicated to destroying the Trump presidency. Recall this is the same bureau that, wittingly or not, probably did more than any other arm of government to create the Trump presidency in the first place, in part because disgruntled F.B.I. field agents were intent on forcing James Comey to reopen the Clinton email investigation 11 days before the election.
.. None of this would have surprised Hofstadter, whose essay traces the history of American paranoia from the Bavarian Illuminati and the Masons to New Dealers and Communists in the State Department. “I call it the paranoid style,” Hofstadter wrote, “simply because no other word adequately evokes the sense of heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy that I have in mind.” What better way to describe a Republican Party that thinks America has more to fear from a third-tier F.B.I. agent in Washington who doesn’t like the president than it does from a first-tier K.G.B. agent in Moscow who, for a time at least, liked the president all too well?
.. The paranoid style, he noted, was typically a function of powerlessness. “Having no access to political bargaining or the making of decisions, they find their original conception that the world of power is sinister and malicious fully confirmed.”
.. Today, Republicans control every branch of government, and nearly every aspect of the Russia investigation. Robert Mueller, a Republican, was appointed special counsel by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, another Republican, and a Trump appointee. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, supposedly accuses the F.B.I. of anti-Trump perfidies in a secret four-page memo, but he won’t share the memo with the director of the F.B.I. — who’s also a Trump appointee.
.. The principal lesson of paranoia is the ease with which politically aroused people can mistake errors for deceptions, coincidences for patterns, bumbling for dereliction, and secrecy for treachery.
.. The failure to know the difference, combined with the desire for a particular result, is what accounts for the paranoid style.
.. America already has one party that’s lost its mind. We don’t need another.
What does Mueller want, and how close is he to getting it?
In an impromptu question-and-answer session with reporters at the White House, Trump also spoke about whether he or anyone else sought to obstruct justice in the probe.
“You fight back, oh, it’s obstruction,” Trump said mockingly of his critics.
.. 2. Do Trump’s comments Wednesday mean that an interview will definitely happen?
There’s no guarantee, but what’s clear is Trump wants to be seen as cooperative and be seen to be willing to sit for an interview.
.. FBI interviews are not typically conducted under oath, but it is still a crime to lie to the FBI.
.. And when and if Trump is questioned, he will face the same legal risks whether or not he is under oath.
The significance of Trump’s reported order to fire Mueller
Judge Denies Fusion GPS Request to Cancel Subpoena for Bank Records
BuzzFeed published the “dossier” in full after the election, but it was soon learned that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department was able to verify many of the assertions in the report.