The FBI's Plumbing Problem

Crackdowns on leaks and the struggle to control the truth.

I don’t mean to shock or surprise you, but there are reports of unhinged behavior by the FBI Director, Kash Patel. I’m not talking about the article written by journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick for The Atlantic describing Patel’s alleged excessive drinking, or her most recent one on Patel’s alleged bourbon stash, nor that the FBI has reportedly opened an investigation into Fitzpatrick herself. I’m talking about the culture of paranoia and fear that has taken over as the director attempts to plug the leaks coming from the Bureau, including ordering polygraphs of more than two dozen agents in his orbit.

This recent reporting reminded me of Nixon’s preoccupation with “plugging the leaks” of classified information coming out of his administration. I’ve been in the weeds of Watergate for my research into complicity (how could I not?) and have been particularly interested in John Dean’s role in the cover up and later decision to testify against Nixon. Watergate was slightly before my time (I was born in 1974) so I read Dean’s memoir, Blind Ambition, to understand the details from his perspective and….hoooooo boy. It’s not nearly as insane as the Trump White House, but it is pretty batsh*t crazy. (I won’t go into details here, but the memoir is a riveting read and worth your time.)

Most of you will remember the “Plumbers Unit,” Nixon’s mini, personal secret police group operating out of the White House whose focus it was to prevent more leaks stemming from the Pentagon Papers that might implicate his administration, and which engaged in illegal activities like the Watergate break-in on June 17, 1972. But the trail leading from the Watergate break-in to the White House began with a connection between the Watergate burglars and an earlier break-in to the office of Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, Dr. Lewis Fielding. Daniel Ellsberg, of course, was the person responsible for leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in June 1971 (which led to the landmark Supreme Court case). When I interviewed Dean he noted that most people refer to Watergate as just a “bungled burglary,” but that the Ellsberg break in, and Nixon’s obsession with the Pentagon Papers, was the linchpin of the whole scandal.

Ellsberg is another figure I have been researching, because his own transformation from insider to whistleblower is incredibly fascinating. Yesterday, I spent the afternoon going through the archival collection of Ellsberg’s papers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Among them was the huge volume of personal correspondence that Ellsberg received after he leaked the Pentagon Papers. I was struck by how similarly people felt in that political moment to how people feel now, particularly in terms of feeling like the government was just out of control and that they were powerless to do anything — and why Ellsberg’s courage was an inspiration and sorely needed ray of hope for getting the country back on track. Here are some of the letters people wrote (don’t you miss the days of handwritten letters?):

It was also similar to our current moment in that people were clearly polarized on the issue, as you can see from the angry (and often anti-semitic) letters below. I have to say that hate mail hasn’t changed much since the 70s.

One letter in particular struck me in its honesty and reflectiveness (transcription below):

To the Ellsbergs —

Almost 3 yrs ago a young UCLA PhD candidate chose prison instead of army service. His name is Joseph Maiglish. His act put me in awe and fear. Awe, that he and others had that kind of courage, and fear that it was only that kind of courage multiplied many times over the world that would stop the war, that I therefore could not in good conscience escape my responsibility in that direction.

I have rationalized for these years doing a bit of peace work here and there; but taking no stand that would say, ‘I will no longer be an accomplice at any level.’

Your recent act has brought me to a new stage of apprehension. It’s no longer the ‘youth’ in their idealism that are taking a stand of unequaled courage. Here is a man my age, and not too different in socio-economic, religious or political background. I was, and am, flabbergasted.

About a yr ago I mustered up the courage to resist the telephone tax. And that scared me. What would be the cost to my freedom for such an act? It is hard to convince myself that the real cost to my freedom comes in overlooking such opportunities for civil disobedience. I don’t want to realize it. I guess I prefer the creeping repressiveness to quick and immediate loss of bodily freedom.

I’m beginning to have less fear of ‘the authorities’ when I realize that I am, in my complicity, an unpunished war criminal. I don’t know yet what [illegible] that realization will have in terms of action. But more and more I wonder that I can go on gardening while V.N. gardens are mined; that I can take to the shelter of my apartment while their houses are burned; that I can enjoy the luxury of lovemaking while all their loved ones are dead or in excruciating pain.

Why do I write? Because Another Mother for Peace said you need our backing. Can those who have taken your step really need the backing of we who go on living as usual?

Jean Glasser

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Of course, Kash Patel making people take polygraphs to stop leaks about his alleged drinking feels way more dumb than a president burglarizing political enemies to stop leaks about a massive, decades-long deception campaign about a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. But even so, the fact that the “plumbers” are back in different form should make us ask how we will make it out of this mess this time around without more people on the inside willing to step up and speak out.

Leaders who are most obsessed with punishing truth-tellers are the ones with the most to hide. And that is precisely why truth-telling — even when it is imperfect, risky, and inconvenient — remains one of the most powerful acts of courage in a democracy. Ellsberg understood that. I hope there are still people inside our institutions who do too.