At the approach of President Trump’s prime time address to the nation on Thursday, former senior FBI and intelligence officials told the Daily Beast that what he touts as a speech emphasizing the importance of “free and fair elections” will, in fact, be part of an attack on democracy itself.
Trump has announced a 9 p.m. Thursday speech, demanding TV network air time—which they have yet to promise—on what he claims will be a matter of national importance. But to those who have worked at the pinnacle of law enforcement, something else is afoot.
“If I was still working a terrorism investigation and a network started coming together and getting into key positions and they started gathering the information and the materials that they needed to carry out a plot, those are things we would call ‘warnings and indicators,’” a retired and profoundly worried FBI official told The Daily Beast.
The official said that when it comes to Trump, that is what is happening.
They detailed a growing list of warnings and indicators. That list is detailed, and specific. It was led by the replacement of Paul Brown as special agent in charge of the FBI Atlanta Field Office. Brown’s sin was to express reservations about the Department of Justice’s decision to investigate the 2020 election, which Trump insists was rigged.
“He wouldn’t go along with it, so they pushed him out,” the retired and profoundly worried FBI official told the Daily Beast.
The list goes on from there. Back in 2023, Trump and 18 others were indicted on state charges of attempted retro-rigging of the 2020 election results. The evidence included the famous recorded phone call in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have. Because we won the state.”
Four defendants pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Trump, but the charges against him were dropped late last year, amid suggestions of a conflict of interest by lead prosecutor Fani Willis.
Two months later, in January, two dozen FBI agents served a criminal search warrant at the Fulton County Election Hub and Operations Center. (The warrant specified the wrong location, so the search was delayed while a judge corrected it.)
But the agents seemed to be in no rush. Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett suspects that it was because they were waiting for Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to be present when the FBI carted away 750 boxes containing more than half a million ballots and other records from the 2020 election.
“They probably took their time a little bit, because they were waiting for Tulsi Gabbard to get there and skulk around in a baseball cap,” Barrett told the Daily Beast
Exactly why the head of national intelligence was there on a domestic matter involving an election six years ago remained a mystery. One guess is that it had something to do Gabbard’s bonkers suggestion in the past that ousted Venezuelan director Nicolas Maduro was able to control voting machines in American elections.
Another mystery is a July 17 deadline to reach a conclusion given to more than 250 FBI agents and analysts who were dispatched to Fulton County, apparently to review the records.
“We are to some extent where everybody else is, in terms of waiting to see what this July 17 deadline brings,” Barrett told the Daily Beast. “There really is no criminal case available to them, so I don’t, I can’t imagine what they’re possibly gonna say on July 18.”
The Department of Justice also sought to secure the personnel records, including phone numbers and home addresses of everybody who worked in the 2020 election in Fulton County, including volunteers. Federal Judge William Ray, a Trump appointee, denied the request.
“Such a large disclosure of information threatens to chill participation in future elections, which will surely impact Fulton County,” the judge said in his ruling on what he called an “arbitrary fishing expedition.”
“The statute of limitations for any possible crime arising from the 2020 Election has long expired,” the judge noted.
Two analysts, a married couple, were fired when they questioned the effort.
And there is talk that the FBI—led by Kash Patel—has been conducting AI-assisted electronic surveillance on its own agents to ferret out doubters.
“We’re spying on ourselves,” the retired and profoundly worried FBI official said.
The official reported that someone who still works at headquarters told him that it is “now being populated with people who are going along with [Trump’s] agenda, and probably for a variety of reasons. Some actually believe in it, some of them are justifying it,... some might just be opportunists. And some of them might be in a position where they’re just cowards, or they have too much to lose, and they need this job.”
The official added, “People will do mental gymnastics to justify it, but we are talking about using toxicity and coercion, intimidation.”
The official is heartsick, “seeing it play out in front of us, within components of the U.S. government.”
He is adding all of it to a list of warnings and indicators, which further includes challenging seemingly any electoral outcome that displeases Trump and normalizing the posting of the national guard in the streets along with ICE.
There is also Trump telling Gabbard’s temporary replacement as of June 3O, acting Director of National Intelligence Bill Pulte “you can declassify whatever you want.” That could enable cherry picking and unverified bits of bit intelligence about supposed foreign interference in U.S. elections.
And there is Trump repeatedly saying we “will no longer have a country” if Congress does not pass the Save America Act.
“It gives him the opportunity to say, ‘I tried to do this the right way, but because of the radical left in Congress, now, because this is a national emergency, I’m forced to do this.’” the official said.
“He intends to control what happens in November and…he’s put the pieces in place to allow him to do that,” the former FBI official said.
(In response to a Daily Beast query about Trump’s intentions, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson wrote, “President Trump is committed to ensuring that Americans have full confidence in the administration of elections, and that includes totally accurate and up-to-date voter rolls free of errors and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters. The Civil Rights Act, National Voting Rights Act, and Help America Vote Act all give the Department of Justice full authority to ensure states comply with federal election laws, which mandate accurate state voter rolls. This campaign pledge from the President is why millions of Americans sent him back to the White House. The President will also continue urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act – which remains hugely popular with the American public – and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting.”)
Another view of Trump’s ultimate goal was offered by a former senior official at the Office of National Intelligence.
“He believes that the Republicans lose the house, he will be impeached,” the former ONI official said.
The retired FBI official is aware that he himself would have once dismissed his worries about Trump as just the stuff of conspiracy theories.
“Did I ever think January 6th was gonna go as far as it went, the big lie? Absolutely not,” the official said. ”But they did it, right? So, it’s not like what we’re talking about is outside the realm of the possible.”
He suggested another possible “foundational driver” should the Democrats take control of the House, perhaps the Senate.
“The rest of their administration is frozen,” he said. “They get nothing done. No more of their agenda, nothing.”
He continued, “But the other bigger thing is, they’re all under investigation, whether it’s the midterm, or two and a half years from now, when things completely turn over.”
Whether it’s Trump enriching himself or Patel jetting around with his girlfriend, they will likely get a visit from an FBI agent with a subpoena.
“All of that will be thoroughly investigated, and if you actually turn the investigative organizations onto it, these people are screwed,” he said. “I mean, completely screwed.”
But the warnings and indicators bring another worry.
“What does a cornered rat do?” the official asked. “Anything is possible.”
