前联邦调查局高级官员：特朗普“认为自己是国王”

       联邦调查局前前高级官员说，唐纳德·特朗普总统对美国民主构成威胁，是一个滥用权力，举止仿佛他是国王的人。

       联邦调查局反情报部门前助理主任弗兰克·菲格里兹（Frank Figliuzzi）周四对迈克·卢皮卡（Mike Lupica）播客发表了评论，同时试图对当前的状况发出警报。

       他说，历史上没有哪位总统如此大胆地罢免了美国政府的其他部门（例如，一再无视监督要求的传票要求），并且众议院和参议院拥有足够的弹劾证据。

       “我们有一位最高执行总裁，认为他是国王。”菲格利齐说：“我们现在没有三个平等的政府部门。”

       在菲格利齐发表评论之前，白宫律师帕特·西波隆（Pat Cipollone）向众议院议长南希·佩洛西（Nancy Pelosi）发送了八页的信，告知佩洛西白宫将不配合弹each程序。

       这位前联邦调查局特工表示，不能接受对美国民主的此类攻击，并补充说，替代方案将使该国发生不可撤销的变化。

       菲格利齐说：“我们就是那只热着锅的青蛙。” “我们不一定理解这个锅正在升温到杀死我们的地步，在这种情况下，这会杀死我们的民主或至少我们的民主形式。

       “就我们的民主而言，温度已经接近沸点，我们要么降低温度要么跳出锅底。前进的方向是我们要么很快就要有另一位总统，要么我们就要有另一位总统了。民主形式。我们从字面上看着我们的民主变革。”

       菲格鲁齐还谈到了许多特朗普的盟友，被任命者和同伙，例如总检察长威廉·巴尔，参议院领导人米奇·麦康奈尔和特朗普的私人律师鲁迪·朱利安尼。他说，他认为他们并不是从腐败的人开始的，而是被腐败的权力过大和缺乏问责制。

       菲格利齐说：“我是一名领导力学生，我在联邦调查局的内部事务和职业责任办公室度过了一部分职业。” “我最终被任命为联邦调查局局长。

       “因此，我研究了这样一个概念，即正直的人什么时候从正直和道德上走到南方，以及他们是否一开始就有道德。

       “我相信朱利安尼（Daniel Giuliani）致力于执法工作，曾是美国检察官，助理检察长，我不认为这个人开始腐败。但是您刚才提到的这些人[巴尔，麦康奈尔，朱利安尼等等] ，在某些时候，他们失去了核心价值观。

       “基础和原则刚刚受到侵蚀，我对发生的过程着迷。

       “权力确实在腐败。毫无疑问。自我，权力是杀手，你必须要对你周围的人负责，而且（在这个政府中）没有责任。”

TRUMP 'THINKS HE IS A KING,' BARR, MCCONNELL AND GIULIANI CORRUPTED BY POWER AND EGO—FORMER TOP FBI OFFICIAL


       President Donald Trump is a threat to U.S. democracy and a man who abuses power and behaves as though he is king, a former top FBI official has said.

       Frank Figliuzzi, a former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, made the comments on The Mike Lupica Podcast on Thursday while trying to sound the alarm about the current state of affairs.

       He said that in no time in history has a president so brazenly dismissed the other branches of U.S. government—by repeatedly ignoring subpoena requests required for oversight, for example—and that the House and Senate have more than enough evidence to impeach.

       "We have a supreme executive president who thinks he's a king.""We don't have three branches of equal government right now," Figliuzzi said.

       Figliuzzi's comments follow the sending of an eight-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi by White House counsel Pat Cipollone, informing Pelosi that the White House will not cooperate with impeachment proceedings.

       The former FBI special agent said such attacks on U.S. democracy must not be accepted, adding that the alternative would leave the country irrevocably changed.

       "We are that proverbial frog in the simmering pot of water," Figliuzzi said. "We don't necessarily understand that this pot is heating up to the point that is going to kill us, in this case kill our democracy or at least our form of democracy.

       "The temperature is approaching the boiling point with regard to our democracy and we either lower the temperature or jump out of the pot. The way this is headed is that we're either going to have another president soon or we are going to have another form of democracy. We are literally watching our democracy change in front of our eyes."

       Figliuzzi also spoke about a number of Trump allies, appointees and associates—such as Attorney General William Barr, Senate Leader Mitch McConnell and Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani—stating that he believes they did not start out as corrupt individuals, but became corrupted by excessive power and the lack of accountability.

       "I'm a student of leadership and I spent a portion of my career in the FBI in internal affairs and the office of professional responsibility," Figliuzzi said. "I was ultimately appointed the chief inspector of the FBI.

       "So I studied this concept of when decent people go south in terms of integrity and ethics, and whether they even had those ethics to begin with.

       "I believe that Giuliani, who devoted his career to law enforcement, who was a U.S. attorney, assistant attorney general, I don't think this guy started out corrupt. But these people you just mentioned [Barr, McConnell, Giuliani among others], at some point, they lose their core values.

       "The foundation and principles just erode and I'm fascinated by the process in which that occurs.

       "Power does corrupt. No question. Ego, powers are killers and you've got to have people around you that you're accountable to and there's no accountability [in this government]."