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On Monday, the Trump administration announced that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey will be appointed “co-deputy director” of the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
It’s an odd arrangement. As the Washington Post notes, the deputy director is usually a career official with a deep understanding of the FBI’s structure and staffing, not someone with zero federal prosecutorial or investigative experience. There’s also the awkward fact that the position is currently occupied by former right-wing griftcaster Dan Bongino.
Assigning Bongino a “babysitter” is hardly a vote of confidence, and all he could manage on Twitter was a terse “Welcome.” He did punctuate it with three American flags, though!
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And so it fell to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, to roll out the red carpet.
“Thrilled to welcome Andrew Bailey as our new FBI Co-Deputy Director,” he gushed. “As Missouri’s Attorney General, he took on the swamp, fought weaponized government, and defended the Constitution. Now he is bringing that fight to DOJ.”
Swamp monster
Bailey’s tenure as Missouri’s AG was short and undistinguished. Previously he served as general counsel to Republican Gov. Mike Parsons, who appointed him as AG in 2023 when then-AG Eric Schmitt got elected to the Senate. Bailey immediately set about using his office — or abusing it, depending on your perspective — to burnish his MAGA bona fides.
He harassed trans people. He boosted conspiracy theories about President Biden and the “autopen.” He grew a beard.
He was also Johnny on the spot for any Trumpworld scutwork that needed doing. Like filing a trollsuit against the state of New York for daring to prosecute Trump for fraud, which he called “violating Missourians’ First Amendment right to hear from a presidential candidate in the 2024 presidential election.”
The Supreme Court studiously ignored this stunt, and a similar effort to intimidate the nonprofit news outfit Media Matters for America fell flat when Bailey tried to take the fake law he practiced in Missouri on the road.
