Mueller Is Coming

I don't have any strong opinions on the guy, really, but I am always extremely wary when people - Republicans, always Republicans - are set up as the heroic presidents of the Council of Celestial Hall Monitors, the referees who will right all of our wrongs without the actual politicians having to do anything.

When the C.I.A. noticed in late 2010 that its spies were disappearing, suspicion did not immediately turn to Mr. Lee, according to current and former officials. But as fears of a mole grew, the government set up a secret task force of C.I.A. officers and F.B.I. agents. A veteran F.B.I. counterintelligence agent, Charles McGonigal, was assigned to run it, former American law enforcement officials said.

As the disappearances continued, analysts concluded that Mr. Lee, even though he had been out of the C.I.A. for years, had known the identities of many of the those who had been killed or imprisoned. He showed all the indicators on a government matrix used to identify potential espionage threats, one former official recalled.

Lee plead guilty. I have no idea whether he was guilty, but even that NYT article contains quite a lot of expressed doubts.

Though whether or not he was, McGonigal was certainly in an interesting position!!!

Also, quite obviously, the kinds of people praised for being "institutionalists" (this is a compliment, for some reason) think their jobs are to protect the institutions!