When President Donald Trump came into office, he was quick to demand that anyone who touched investigations into him be purged from the U.S. government. That has included Justice Department lawyers and FBI investigators. Even lower-level researchers didn’t escape punishment.
Former Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor has an idea: Make them the new investigators of the coming Trump probes.
Taylor was previously the infamous leaker who revealed bombshell developments in the first Trump administration that made him fear for the country’s future.
If angry voters turn out for the Nov. 3 election, Democrats are expected to take back the House. That could trigger investigations spanning government and corporate America’s relationship with the Trump administration.
Over the weekend, Rolling Stone reported that Democrats are already preparing.
“Speaker [Mike] Johnson (R-La.) even told a gathering of conservatives earlier this year that “impeachment isn’t even the real concern.” Instead, he warned that “half of them in the room would be targeted. Accordingly, Johnson pledged he’d take care of his GOP colleagues, and his office is reportedly running oversight briefings for nervous Republicans, PowerPoint included.”
“I’m glad they’re running scared. They should be,” Taylor teased.
One of the biggest concerns, he pointed out, is that a subpoena is only as useful as the person who knows how to use it. Currently, no investigators can handle such sprawling probes. That’s why Taylor thinks the place to start is hiring dozens of long-time investigators with experience in high-profile cases and the personal scrutiny that can come with them.
“The old adage that ‘no one is above the law’ assumes that there’s always someone looking,” Taylor said. “But if you blindfold the people whose job it is to keep their eyes peeled, then the adage becomes a cruel joke, right?”
Taylor has been at work on a documentary he’s calling “Corruptionland,” which will be released online next week. Among those he’s spoken with are many of these former prosecutors and agents who specifically worked with the Public Integrity Section of the DOJ and FBI investigators with experience in Washington corruption cases.
“They were pushed out for doing their jobs, and almost every one of them told me some version of the same thing: if there were a serious, well-run effort to hold this administration accountable, they’d step back into the fight tomorrow,” said Taylor. “Congress should take them up on it. If the opposition wins the House or the Senate, the new committee chairs should hire these investigators and put them to work. Right away.”
Taylor thinks Trump’s effort to block anyone from investigating him is about to “backfire,” and it should start with those who know about it from the inside.