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William Yeomans, a former Assistant Deputy Attorney General who spent 26 years at the Department of Justice, said: "There is no indication that the editorialist has broken the law, especially since he is not a lawyer. no confidential information has been revealed. . "The Justice Department investigates crimes and conducts counterintelligence investigations," he said. "A criminal investigation can not be launched without a predicate suggesting a reasonable basis for believing that criminal acts may have been committed." Yeomans also argued that the opposition was a "legitimate threat" to national security. "Without any indication that national security may be compromised, the GM can not and should not launch a counterintelligence investigation."
One could argue that the editorialist makes sure that the United States does not have leadership on the international stage. But that would not be exactly a new revelation, said John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA. "I'm afraid the United States already looks that way," he said. "At a minimum, the international audience is confused – namely, whether to believe the president or his main advisors because what they say and do is often in conflict". As for the launch of a criminal investigation on the editorialist, McLaughlin, like Laufman and Yeomans, saw no legal basis for that. "My experience at the CIA is that the director can file a" crime report "with the DOJ only if someone has leaked classified information or committed a crime," said McLaughlin. "There is no classified information here and no crime. Rather, it is a problem of discipline and management in the White House and, therefore, for which the Speaker must look in the mirror in my opinion. "
David Kris, a former Deputy Attorney General of the DOJ's National Security Division and founder of Culper Partners, acknowledged that the comment "could very well be bad for the United States and make the country sick. But let us be clear about the root cause of all these difficulties: the president's own conduct. So, even if the answers they provoke are unattractive and inappropriate – which I think is positive – we must not lose sight of the main problem we are facing. "
John A. Rizzo, former acting attorney general at the CIA, also said that a criminal investigation was flawed. "Being insubordinate and untrustworthy as a government employee can and has been the basis of the dismissal, especially if you are in a national security agency, and I think it would be an appropriate sanction if that person is identified ". But it is for White House security officials and their counterparts in the bureaucracy to look into this issue. This should therefore be the subject of an administrative inquiry, not a criminal one. "Indeed," said Kris, Trump's request to Sessions betrays "an attitude of" the state, that's me. "This reflects an inability to distinguish between one's own personal feelings and interests and US interests, states of the other. "
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