Some Americans perceive everything from Maidan Square revolution forward as Deep State foreign policy, and therefore immediately suspect. The Deep Staters genuinely support the liberal democratic ideal. (Liberal in the 19th century meaning.) They just do not understand democracy and its limits.
Muslim democracy will never be liberal; Islam just does not have a secular concept within its framework. Hence, the Arab Spring failed. Liberal democracy also requires a shared sense of national identity, which is one reason Afghanistan failed.
Deep Staters do not support American democracy: Roe v. Wade and all the rest of the "we cannot trust voters" baggage. But they regard this as a temporary problem until every generation thinks Modern Family is an aspirational goal; Christianity ceases to influence behavior; and every high school has marijuana vaping liquid vending machines.
Democracy in Eastern Europe seems a bit short of Deep State goals about immigration and sexual confusion (Poland, Hungary, and Ukraine). But grudgingly, Deep State supports it in hopes that the pollution of Hollywood will eventually change them. This is not an argument against democracy; it is an argument for understanding where they are attempting to plant an idea that requires rather particular soil.
Lawyers for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort are crying foul over a meeting Justice Department prosecutors held with four Associated Press reporters last year as news organizations and the FBI bore down on the longtime lobbyist and political consultant.
Manafort’s defense has argued for months that the off-the-record session on April 11, 2017, was a potential conduit for improper leaks to the press about the probe that led to two criminal cases against the former Trump campaign chief.
Now, Manafort’s attorneys have fresh evidence they say bolsters their claims: two memos written by FBI agents who attended the meeting and documented their version of what transpired.
Manafort’s legal team paints the evidence as confirmation that journalists were given inside information about the investigation in violation of Justice Department policies and, perhaps, legal prohibitions on disclosure of grand jury secrets....
One of memos also says the purpose of the meeting was for the FBI to “obtain documents from the AP reporters,” although it’s unclear any documents were shown or changed hands.
The memos also show that one of the AP journalists gave the FBI an unusual detail about a storage unit in Alexandria, Virginia, that Manafort used to keep records of his worldwide business dealings. Both memos say the AP revealed a code number to access the unit, although one memo says the reporters declined to share the number or location of the locker. (The memos give two slightly different versions of the code, with one suggesting it was to access a locked parking lot at the storage facility.)So not only is AP not an independent watchdog, but actually an arm of the
