https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/repentance/
“The true penitent, Maimonides says, is the one who finds himself with the opportunity to commit the same sin again yet declines to do so.”
- To recover, the FBI would have to verbally confess its wrongs, apologizing to President Trump personally and to the American people in general. So long as the institutional mindset protects the FBI’s reputation against the slightest scratch, the institutional mindset will also recognize the high probability of getting away with similar abuses in the future. A highly-specific public apology, by embarrassing the bad actors and providing a warning that the FBI can misbehave in this manner, actually makes future abuses of FBI power less likely.
- This apology must express sincere remorse and must do so in a manner that makes it difficult or impossible for those who weaponized law enforcement to argue that they were serving a higher good. The expression of remorse must be specific enough to show that the interference into American elections by the FBI and their attempt to overturn a free and fair American election were by their very nature more harmful than any free and fair election outcome could ever be.
- FBI leadership must do everything they can to right the wrongs it has inflicted. Most important, they must create conditions where junior, mid-level, and senior FBI agents will act differently in the future. This probably requires the public humiliation of many who misbehaved. This also probably requires that many FBI careers end, so that those currently willing to weaponize the FBI’s powers will refuse to do so out of self-preservation if nothing else.
Sincere repentance is a tall order for an FBI that was twisted by Obama’s malice and corruption. Chris Farrell is probably right. I don’t think the FBI will recover from this either.
Convince Dick Wolf to revive Law & Order: Trial By Jury, and do what they call 'flip the script', in this instance, stories that show alphabet agencies run amok.