Liberal news media used to treat agencies like the FBI and CIA that guarded government secrets with deep skepticism. Think The New York Times and the Pentagon Papers, or The Washington Post and Watergate.

That was then. Now the same crowd is bending over backward to treat those agencies as the bulwarks of our democracy, their every move above suspicion.

And painting President Trump, who’s only asking for transparency on the FBI’s investigation of his campaign, as a threat to the Republic and its democratic institutions.

Fact is, lots of questions need answering — but the FBI and the Justice Department remain close-mouthed. What do they fear?

The latest wrinkle is the absurd effort to “shield” the name of a longtime US intelligence source who at the FBI’s behest courted several Trump campaign aides to try to uncover any collusion with Russia.

The informant has been widely identified as Stefan Halper, an academic and former GOP official, and the circumstances behind his involvement remain murky at best.

ID’ing him wasn’t tough: Months ago, The Daily Caller ran a story on ex-Trump aide Carter Page’s suspicions about Halper, and recent Times and Post accounts (based on … leaks from the FBI or Justice) included more than enough info to make it obvious.

But DOJ and the FBI refuse to officially turn over his name to the House Intelligence Committee, claiming it would endanger his life or compromise an important intel operation.

Yet the name’s out, with no sign of any damage done. Instead, people are asking questions, like: Was it appropriate for Halper to pay Carter Page for what seems like a fake job, all to create a pretext to ask Page what he knew about Russian hacking? (Page’s answer: Nothing.)

Plus: Why was Halper later lobbying for a job in the administration, as Axios reports? Was he still on the FBI payroll at the time?

In fact, the DOJ has stonewalled on pretty much all the information Congress has sought about the Russia probe — including, most critically, just what launched it in the first place. Was it, in fact, the infamous dossier produced by opposition researcher Christopher Steele and the Beltway smear-merchants of FusionGPS?

It sure looks like the FBI was manipulated into running an intelligence-gathering operation for partisan political purposes. Trump and Congress are right to be asking the sort of questions journalists used to pose.

Yes, there’s an issue here of potential threats to democratic norms. But they aren’t coming from the White House.