> That none of the career officials tasked with implementing the hoax spoke up at the time bespeaks a rot in the organizational culture that will not be corrected by mere changes in top level personnel.
Maybe I’m too forgiving, or too naiive, but I can easily imagine that a relatively few people were able to manipulate others. For example, if I were a peon shown a court-ordered FISA warrant, it would not occur to me to ask “Say, this warrant wasn’t obtained via perjury, was it?”. Likewise, given the order “Hey, can you talk to so-and-so to see whether the Russians are helping him” I would be completely unaware that my boss had already seeded “Tell so-and-so the Russians will help him” through someone else.
FBI Assistant Director of Criminal Division Ronald Hosko investigated Vadim Mikerin in connection with Uranium One bribery. Hosko says FBI Counterintelligence never told him that there was more to Uranium One than simply trucking kickbacks (tax evasion).