It worked like a charm, allowing Hoover to run the FBI for 48 years.
But Hoover's been thoroughly dead for nearly 45 years, taken out by a heart attack back in 1972. Yet for some who may be familiar with (or perhaps a victim of) his savagely effective muckraking, it may come as no surprise if it were to be discovered that Hoover somehow managed to leave an extinction-level stash of damaging material on both trump and Putin tucked away in a file somewhere. Which is to say that in a different time, if there's anyone who would be in possession of the absolute dirtiest of any potential dirty bombs available for deployment against trump, it probably wouldn't be the Russians. Hell, it may not even be the CIA.
It would more likely be J. Edgar Hoover.
American Scoundrel
Granted, Hoover -- who began his public service career as a clerk at the Library of Congress -- was a loathe-worthy scoundrel saddled with what should be considered an ugly perspective for anyone serving as the nation's top lawman: an utter disdain for the U.S. Constitution. But he was, at least, America's loathsome scoundrel which in certain situations, carries a peculiar upside. In this case, the upside would be the presumption that under Hoover, it's more likely that the absolute worst dirt on trump would be in the hands of American intelligence, thus we'd more likely have the upper hand over the Russians in controlling trump. In addition, we'd also perhaps have a better idea about what is truth and what is fiction when items such as lurid intelligence dossiers -- like the one Buzzfeed published about trump in early January -- emerge from the shadows.
Which begs the question: who is this James Comey guy anyway? How is it that the Bureau's current top G-Man is unable to verify or disprove any of the dirt on trump allegedly developed by the Russians (instead of James Comey) and later compiled into a dossier by Christopher Steele, a retired British intelligence agent (also instead of James Comey). It was as if while everyone was talking about "when," "where," and "why," an event happened, Comey was still stuck on "what" happened. Thus, it seems, a pretty good argument could be made that Comey knew little or nothing about the alleged dirt the Russians had on trump until it was actually given to him by the former Brit intelligence agent who dug it up.
While it is true that jurisdiction over international espionage and related cases belongs to the CIA, the FBI can also provide input in international cases when an American citizen is in the mix. In this case, however, it hardly matters. Based on the circles the Russians appeared to have run around him in amassing "kompromat" on trump, Comey comes off as a rank amateur. This may be one reason why trump decided to retain Comey as FBI director -- he (Comey) knows too little -- which represents a stark reversal of the circumstances that kept Hoover from getting fired during his 48-years at the Bureau (knowing too much).
Indeed, in terms of truly down and dirty, next-level muckraking, so wide is the apparent contrast in skill between Hoover and Comey that it's probably safe to assume that in 2017 -- even without the advantages of this era's technology -- J. Edgar Hoover would be the more feared and highly regarded FBI director by the Bureau's adversaries both foreign and domestic.
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