The Wrecking of the FBI

The David Frum Show

The Atlantic

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2025

⏱️ ? minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode of The David Frum Show, The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with a warning about President Donald Trump’s decision to shut down the conversation around the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. David explains why Trump’s move has triggered backlash from parts of his own base and why it reveals a deeper political fracture inside the MAGA movement. Then David is joined by the former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, who shares his insights on what’s happening at the bureau during Trump’s second term. Strzok, who is still engaged in a lawsuit with the government over his 2018 firing, explains how Trump loyalists such as the FBI’s director, Kash Patel, and its deputy director, Dan Bongino, are dismantling the agency’s national-security functions: purging experts, sidelining investigations, and leaving the United States dangerously vulnerable to terrorism, foreign espionage, and cyberattacks. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at theAtlantic.com/listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This podcast is brought to you by Eleven Labs, the company behind AI voices that don't sound like AI voices, like this one.
0:09.3	Learn more at visit11labs.io slash Atlantic to get started for free.
0:14.9	Music Hello, and welcome to another episode of the David Frum show.
0:30.2	I'm David Frum, a staff writer at the Atlantic.
0:33.2	My guest this week will be Peter Strach, an FBI agent who has become a victim of President
0:37.8	Trump's campaign of retribution against those who try to apply law against him.
0:43.0	Our topic was the hollowing out of the FBI in the second Trump term.
0:48.1	And my original plan was to have a monologue that would address that very specific subject.
0:53.5	But there have been some dramatic
0:54.7	events this past weekend at the FBI, including threats of resignation or reported threats of
0:59.7	resignation by both the director and the deputy director to protest the Attorney General's
1:04.9	directive to shut down the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Because of that, I'm changing plans
1:10.8	and recording this monologue late on
1:13.2	Sunday evening before the release of the show, which will explain to those of you viewing on
1:18.2	YouTube a certain stepping away from the usual high aesthetic standards we try to maintain for the
1:23.1	visuals of the David From show. These dramatic events caught me between planes, and I'm speaking to
1:27.4	you from an
1:27.9	airport hotel and not one of our usual venues. I want to offer some thoughts about the Trump-Eptstein
1:34.6	matter. Now, let's look at this for a moment from the point of view of a MAGA supporter, a MAGA
1:40.3	believer. Now, if you are such a person, you have refused to take seriously and accepted
1:45.7	President Trump's excuses for a long array of shocking, shocking events, including confirmed
1:54.1	findings by a civil court of sexual abuse, massive self-enrichment, the attempted overthrow of an
	...

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