Trump makes a curious appeal to the CIA before his inauguration

Donald Trump has had a lot to say in the wake of the deadly attack in New Orleans, although most of the president-elect’s rhetoric It has been deeply unfortunate.. In a series of letters on social networks, the Republican has He sold erroneous and ugly information. in ways that should cause lasting damage to what remains of its credibility.

But one element of Trump’s reaction to the violence stood out as especially strange. From one of his online messages.:

The Department of Justice, the FBI, and Democrat (sic) state and local prosecutors have not done their job. They are incompetent and corrupt, as they have spent all their waking hours illegally attacking their political opponent, ME, instead of focusing on protecting Americans outside and inside from the violent SCUM that has infiltrated every aspect of our government and our nation itself. Democrats should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen to our country. The CIA must get involved NOW, before it’s too late.

We’ve already discussed why most of Trump’s posts deserve to be dismissed as ridiculous. There is no evidence of widespread procedural corruption; the “violent scum” has not infiltrated the government, etc.

But it was that last sentence that deserves the most scrutiny: The Central Intelligence Agency, according to the president-elect, must “get involved” immediately.

get complicated, asexactly?

In context, it was not entirely clear who or what Trump expects the CIA to investigate. Can you imagine a scenario in which the intelligence agency examines the attack in New Orleans? If so, it would be strange, since it would have no jurisdiction (the CIA’s remit is international intelligence gathering) and the matter can be handled by state, local and federal authorities.

Perhaps imagine a scenario in which the agency targets state, local and federal prosecutors? If so, it would likely be illegal given the scope of the CIA’s responsibilities.

Or perhaps the Republican would like to see the CIA hunt down the “violent scum” who, in Trump’s overactive imagination, have “infiltrated every aspect of our government”? It’s possible, although again, these people don’t seem to exist in reality, and the CIA has no authority to start a search for scum.

To be sure, there is no reason to assume that Trump knows what the CIA does or the limits of the agency’s authority. But therein lies part of the problem: He could soon begin ordering the CIA to launch the kinds of investigations it legally cannot conduct.

For his part, far-right media personality Steve Bannon apparently saw the president-elect’s message and he said on his podcast“(N)o, we don’t want the CIA to be involved in anything internally, since they are too involved internally.”

This article was originally published in MSNBC.com