Donald Trump, the Richard Jewell of the 21st Century by Larry C Johnson

Richard Jewell is a true American hero and deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. More about that later. If you are not familiar with Mr. Jewell, he was a security guard at Centennial Park in Atlanta during the 1996 Summer Olympics and discovered what turned out to be a terrorist bomb. His action in warning authorities and helping push people away from the backpack containing the bomb, which was placed under a park bench, saved lives. He was hailed briefly as a hero until a Georgia police officer told an Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter, Kathy Scruggs, that the FBI suspected Jewell of being the bomber.

Richard Jewell experienced what Donald Trump, Michael Flynn, George Papdopolous and numerous others in the Trump galaxy have endured during the Russia Gate Hoax. Jewell's entire life was mined for every unflattering detail and news reports often got the information wrong. He was electronically lynched by a stupid, lazy media. But the lynching was made possible by equally corrupt, lazy FBI.

I strongly encourage you to get and watch Clint Eastwood's movie on the case, Richard Jewell. It shows how the FBI tried to railroad and frame Jewell as the culprit. FBI agents on the case, for example, tried to manipulate Jewell into waiving his constitutional rights by telling him he was taking part in a training film about bomb detection. All the FBI had to do was look at three critical pieces of evidence from the phone call from a phone booth near Centennial Park warning that a bomb would go off. First, it was impossible for Jewell to have made the call because the phone was located more than a six minute walk from where Jewell was stationed. Second, the voice in the recording did not match Jewell's. Third, there were numerous eyewitnesses who could testify to Jewell's presence before and during the bombing.

The FBI also failed to find any corroborating forensic evidence to support their theory that Jewell had built and placed the bomb in hopes of becoming a hero. All they had was their own ignorance and prejudice. They viewed Jewell as a fat, stupid red-neck who wanted to be a cop and then assumed that he would do anything, including killing innocent people, to get ahead.

Sound familiar Mr. Trump? The malevolent partnership between the FBI and the media was weaponized to attack and destroy the reputation of Mr. Jewell. When you watch Clint Eastwood's telling of this story you immediately recognize that this was not aberrant behavior by a few bad apples at the FBI. This is standard operating procedure and has continued to today. The FBI, in my view, is a corrupted, crooked outfit and must be reined in.

I have several dear friends who are retired FBI agents. I know that none of them would have engaged in this dishonorable conduct. But the bureaucracy of the FBI is replete with a culture that punishes anyone who dare speak out to challenge conventional wisdom or the decisions of senior leaders. It you try to take a stand on principle you find yourself assigned to Bismark, North Dakota or Helena, Montana. Backwaters that are career killers.

Those who get ahead are the Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe types. They will violate procedures and laws in pursuit of an objective that higher ups want. They will lie and deceive and excuse their conduct as justified because they are pursuing a greater good. The heart of the FBI misconduct can be explained in part by a willingness to believe the most heinous allegation without using reason or facts to verify its truth.

Their perception that Richard Jewell was a fat redneck who was not too smart made it easy for them to concluded that he was so desperate for recognition that he would kill innocents.

Jump ahead twenty years--because Donald Trump had a business interest in Russia it was just assumed, by both the media and the FBI, that he was tied to organized crime and under the thumb of the Russians. But there was no evidence for that either. Just the FBI's own perverted fantasies.

Richard Jewell died 13 years ago from complications caused by severe diabetes. He did received financial settlements for media smears. But he has not yet received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He should. If Donald Trump decides to do a posthumous award for Richard Jewell, it will a just end to an unjust, crooked attempt to indict an innocent man. I think that is something the President and others, such as Michael Flynn, George Papdopolous and Roger Stone, keenly understand.

 

Comments

[Diana Croissant]

The problem is that "a just end to an unjust, crooked attempt to indict an innocent man" can actually never completely happen in cases like these.

How do any of those men gain back the time, and how can they forget the pain they've been through?

There will always be people who don't keep up with the issues who will always associate their names with something with which their names should not be associated.

Clint Eastwood's movie will help for those who are young and really don't remember the case. That is a great start.

I'll be sure to watch it.

[blue peacock]

Larry,

My perception is that the framing of innocent people, using the power of the government to harass and ruin people financially and collusion among prosecutors & judges is more widespread. As you say it is not just a few rotten people. It seems much more endemic.

And it is not just red-necks that are victimized but the powerless in general including minorities who are disproportionately victims.

The Jeffrey Epstein case epitomizes the two-tier justice system we have. Yet we lecture the world.

[exiled off mainstreet]

While I think you are spot on about Jewell, and I largely agree with you about Trump, I think that the system unfortunately convinced Trump to go over the line on Soleimani, the key Iranian figure they convinced to order the liquidation of. As an aside, I find your commentaries accurate. Your view of the FBI and power structure totally convincing based on your experience as an intelligence operative. Back to the Solemani case, I think Trump fell into the trap because he thought it might reduce the pressure on him from the power structure, but it tars him with the same brush as the permanent state. Because of his action on this, I can't support Trump, but I am convinced that the opposition is even worse and will defend him to that degree.
I think recent events show that the system is beyond remediation. The success of the democrat party power structure in neutering the Sanders movement has made it almost certain that Trump will triumph in November, since Biden has a documented record of corruption and is non-compos mentis, and all of the fact patterns you describe reveal that Democrats are the greater evil, since Trump has been under attack from the system because he is not fully under their control.

[Upstate NY'er]

FBI - Famous But Incompetent.
Is there any doubt that Russian and Chinese spies run free, with dolts like Strzok leading the "counterespionage" effort?
Burn it down.

[Seamus Padraig]

I agree. And in case anyone here hasn't seen the movie yet, here's an excellent review of it: https://www.unz.com/tlynch/film-review-richard-jewell/

[turcopolier]

blue peacock

In my occasional consultant work for the federal courts it became apparent to me that the judges (with exceptions), the lawyers (both sides) and the police (especially the FBI) are a giant conspiracy that thinks of the justice system as a game in which they must always be the winners.

[Jack]

Sir

The ends justify the means. But what are the ends this conspiracy seeks? Winning for career advancement? For social standing and inclusion in the club? For the sheer exercise of power?

[Mike C]

Larry,

A lot of the locals leave the "c" out of Bismarck too. I wonder if it's still considered a backwater for federal LEOs since the Bakken cranked up. Maybe the climbers have a different idea about what builds a career, as you said.