Former FBI Special Agent in Charge Charles McGonigal, has been arrested for an array of transgressions – committed both before and after his retirement from the bureau. He’s been indicted for violating Russian trade sanctions, lying to federal investigators, and money laundering.
Was he caught via the shrewd investigatory skills of the FBI? Nope. He was caught because his girlfriend narced on him, when he refused to leave his wife. She informed his former employer that:
- They had sex in government vehicles. (Embarrassing)
- She had seen piles of suspicious cash in his apartment. (Demands a closer look)
- He had traveled to Albania with a foreign intelligence officer without reporting it. (That’s huge)
Why does infidelity seem to go hand in hand with corruption at the FBI? Every time a bureau official gets in trouble, we find out that he’s also been getting some side action unbeknownst to his spouse. Is it possible that the same character flaws that lead people to cheat on their spouses, may also lead them to cheat on their country? Does the presence of one indiscretion (like adultery) indicate a higher likelihood that the same person may be willing to commit other indiscretions – like selling out their country?
I’m not going to get all preachy about sexual morality, because my point isn’t about sex. It’s about integrity. When President “Slick Willy” Clinton got caught diddling interns in the Oval Office, the Dems and the MSM said it was no big deal. “It’s just sex. It’s between him and Hillary. It’s none of our business. It doesn’t have anything to do with his job.” Blah, Blah, Blah.
They ignored the fact that the outrage from the right wasn’t about sex. It was about a demonstrated lack of honesty and judgement – which has everything to do with the President’s job.
The left talked Americans into accepting situational integrity. It’s okay to be dishonest about this, but not about that. Once we accepted that argument for our chief executive, government leadership inevitably accepted it for every other government employee – law enforcement included. Now we have moral relativism in government officials for whom morality should not be relative.
Moral relativism leads to the decay of acceptable behavior. When some dishonesty became acceptable, the type of “acceptable dishonesty” shifted over time. We stopped holding government officials to a higher standard, and now we’re seeing where that leads.
Flexible integrity at the FBI has given us Peter Strozk and Lisa Page. Pete was an FBI Special Agent and Lisa was a lawyer at the bureau. Both swore oaths of honesty. Both were cheating on their spouses – with each other. Both are no longer at the FBI because they got caught exchanging texts like a couple of school kids – about hating the man (Donald Trump) that they were investigating. Apparently, they were as lax about defending the Constitution as they were about fulfilling their marital vows. Who could have seen that coming?
They weren’t the only adulterous couple investigating Donald Trump. Kevin Clinesmith and Sally Moyer were another playful couple at the FBI working on the Russian Collusion hoax. Both were lawyers at the bureau engaged in an extramarital affair. Both were removed from the Crossfire Hurricane investigation when they were caught exchanging inflammatory text messages about their investigatory target – just like Pete and Lisa. Kev is now a convicted felon. He falsified evidence to get a warrant to surveil Trump associates. I’m sure that impressed his office squeeze, Sally.
Richard Trask was the lead FBI agent on the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping conspiracy. He took his wife to a swinger’s party and then beat her bad enough to draw a felony assault charge. Dick was terminated by the bureau because he couldn’t have a security clearance with a felony conviction. It would have also been really embarrassing for him to testify at the trial.
Trask had some honesty problems too. It was discovered that he was operating a business on the side – in violation of FBI policy. Who could have seen other ethical transgressions coming from such an upstanding guy?
The FBI sex scandals include more than just the big names. Four agents were found to be engaging in “commercial sex” while on overseas assignment. “Commercial sex” is bureau speak for hooking up with prostitutes.
There are even numerous allegations of agents engaging in sexual encounters with MSM on-air personalities. But it’s just about sex. It couldn’t possibly jeopardize an investigation, could it?
I find it very hard to believe that there was this much woopy being pitched around the office without other employees noticing. And yet there appears to be very little consequence for such behavior – among those whose jobs depend on integrity.
The FBI’s motto is: fidelity, bravery, and integrity. There is no sexual disclaimer for the integrity part. Agents need to be beyond reproach for a reason. We give them the powers of law enforcement because they swear an oath. What is that oath worth if they’re dishonest some of the time.
That’s not how honesty and integrity works. Burning buildings down only on weekends doesn’t make one “mostly peaceful.” Telling the truth when there’s no personal risk doesn’t make one “mostly honest.” If the bureau accepts situational integrity, it’s actually accepting no integrity. It should change its motto to: fidelity, bravery, and occasional integrity – when it doesn’t get in the way.
If an FBI official will casually break their vow to a loved one, why are we surprised that they will also break their oath to us? Moral relativism is a convenient way to excuse bad behavior, but it leads to accepting things that are destructive to society. Accepting the morality of aborting a fetus, has led to 210 Democrats voting that it’s moral to deny medical treatment to a newborn baby – which they call an abortion survivor. Allowing people with flawed character to enforce justice has resulted in the corruption of our criminal justice system.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the rot runs deep at the Department of Justice. We accepted moral relativism and now we’re getting its attendant situational integrity. Our officials believe it’s okay to cheat on some things, as long as they don’t cheat on the important stuff. We never understood that they would have a different interpretation of “important stuff” than we do. They’ve skated down that slippery slope from “personal indiscretions are okay” to “institutional violations of the Constitution are okay” – if it’s for a cause they consider worthy.
Author Bio: John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho. He has written for American Thinker, and American Free News Network. He can be followed on Facebook or reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.
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Along with one sin goes another and another, until you can’t distinguish them, or what started the path. They get away with one thing and it makes them bold and arrogant, so they go on to prepare their earthly feast, and go out and have affair, because they can. Then they get weaponized through ideology, hiding behind the misconception that they are the incorruptible ones.
It ain’t going to be getting better. Their trajectory is set.
It’s a wonder why we ever trusted them, as an institution.
Went to Catholic schools, K-12, 50’s and 60’s. In High school the priests railed against situational ethics. If it’s wrong, it’s wrong. There’s no situation that will make it right. I’ve tried hard to live with this all my life. Apparently, once they hang a federal badge and gun on your belt, all of that goes away.
I didn’t grow up in Catholic schools, but I do remember a Catholic junior college, Aquinas, in Nashville, where the Dominicans were excellent in teaching the classics, ethics and science. That was as late as 1981. I hope it remained. I learned more at their small junior college than Vandy, APSU and MTSU combined. Really!