‘This Just Doesn’t Occur’: CNN Law Enforcement Analyst in Disbelief at ‘Bizarre’ FBI Raid on Elections Facility

CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller said last week’s “unprecedented” FBI raid of an elections office in Georgia was downright “bizarre,” especially considering how it was carried out.

On Wednesday, FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operation Center in Georgia, which President Donald Trump lost in 2020. The president has falsely claimed that the election was rigged against him. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has no authority over the FBI, was on the scene. Trump said Gabbard is “working very hard” to find evidence of election fraud after the bureau seized ballots from the facility. The New York Times reported on Monday that Gabbard and multiple FBI agents were on the phone with Trump in the FBI’s Atlanta field office, discussing the raid a day later.

During Monday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, Miller explained the surreality of the situation:

I can’t think of anything more unusual, but this entire thing is stacked with unprecedented– kind of setting asides of mores and rules, because you have the director of national intelligence flying in on the scene, leading an FBI operation, a criminal investigation, a domestic criminal investigation on U.S. soil.

Remember, the DNI has no investigative authorities. If you read IRTPA, the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act that creates the office, the DNI has no investigative authority. It has no authority to supervise or run an investigation by another agency. The intelligence community should be focused on foreign threats. And here is the director of national intelligence on the ground.

Miller then cited the Times report about the phone call among Trump, Gabbard, and FBI agents:

The next day, after the raid, she’s in the FBI office putting the agents on the phone after debriefing them with the president, who basically gives them an attaboy speech after asking them questions about the case, what a great job they’re doing.

This just doesn’t occur. The FBI is supposed to be separated and apart from political influence. It is supposed to be independent and operating without fear or favor. A lot of that has gone out the window with the political appointments at the FBI. But not even the veil of the idea that they’re operating independently now, when you have outside agencies seeming to be in charge and the president talking to them or instructing them directly. It’s bizarre.

Host Jake Tapper asked Miller if Gabbard’s presence and the phone call could prove problematic in a potential criminal case deriving from the raid.

“And, John, in speaking directly to these FBI investigators, could the president or even Director of National Intelligence Gabbard, could they have compromised whatever this criminal investigation is?” he asked.

“Well, Jake, if there’s ever a charge, the entire defense is now kind of based on everything about this case that’s not normal and that seems politically influenced,” Miller responded. “They have basically constructed a defense by carrying it out this way.”

Watch above via CNN.

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