‘No comment’ won’t do

Country in the dark on FBI raid

‘These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents. Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before.”

—Donald Trump

HE’S RIGHT. These are dark times. His Florida home was raided. Nothing like this has ever happened to a former president of the United States.

For their part, the FBI and the Department of Justice aren’t commenting. The White House is deferring to those agencies that are doing the no-commenting. (The papers say that the White House press secretary declined to comment 18 times on the raid the other day.)

Last we heard, Palm Beach police were tipped off that armed pro-Trump protesters were on their way, and to get ready. MSN reports that steps have been taken to secure the safety of a judge in the case.

This is a recipe for nothing good. When the government keeps Americans in the dark, that’s when conspiracy talk takes over. There are enough folks out there who believe in a Deep State controlling everything, or trying to control everything. The national papers (and international websites) have some information about what they think is happening, but most of the information comes from anonymous sources. And conspiracy types get even more furious.

Doubtless the brass at the DOJ had to approve this raid. Donald Trump’s Florida compound wouldn’t be targeted by a local fed. And a judge had to approve any warrant.

Speaking of warrants, Hugh Hewitt, a conservative-leaning Washington Post writer, says Donald Trump could release the warrant:

“The former president has a copy; he should make it public. It likely lists the items to be seized and the laws allegedly violated. The affidavit supporting the warrant is probably sealed, former prosecutors say, and Attorney General Merrick Garland can seek to unseal it. Citizens need to know if this is a reasonable search based on probable cause of some crime by someone with access to Mar-a-Lago—as a judge has clearly decided there is probable cause to conclude—or yet another unmerited strike at the 45th president by the latest in the long line of former federal officials who have tried to take Donald Trump down a peg, or behind bars, and failed.”

It would be considered protocol to not comment on a criminal investigation. But as we know, Donald Trump isn’t your typical target of an investigation. His allies, and not just the ones in Congress, are outraged.

No Comment won’t do just now. Somebody in the government needs to hold a news conference. And if not everything can be made public, at least let Americans know what’s going on.

Otherwise, this is a recipe for nothing good.