Now that the president* has stood strongly behind being noodle-spined on the world stage, lots of stories that might otherwise get blown by in the news cycle take on more specific gravity than they had before Monday. For example, the FBI official who’d been tasked as co-leader of that agency’s effort to counter Russian ratfcking and other threats from overseas just got fed up and quit. From Politico:

Jeffrey Tricoli, a section chief in the FBI’s Cyber Division who oversaw efforts to counter Russian election meddling and similar activities, wanted a promotion to Special Agent in Charge and command of one of the FBI’s 56 field offices, said the former FBI official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But bureau management refused, this person said. “They told him he had ‘too much cyber experience,’” the former official told MC, “and not enough [experience] in criminal, terrorism, and counterintelligence” matters. “So he said f— you and resigned.”

Maybe Tricoli was an ambitious careerist who annoyed people in upper echelons beyond their endurance. Maybe he was the office conniver. Maybe he blew off somebody’s birthday sheet-cake. Even so, given what we saw in Helsinki on Monday, this really isn’t the right time to lose the cyber-threat expert over an HR issue, is it? Especially when you replace him with somebody much further down on the depth chart.

According to the former official, the FBI replaced Tricoli as co-head of the foreign influence task force with Reid Davis, a former supervisor in the South Carolina Field Office. Davis, this person said, “knows absolutely nothing about cyber.”

In other herring-scented news, it seems that there are hundreds of very weird and wonderful photos of Mariia Butina, the Russian gun-moll whom the FBI busted Monday on criminal lobbying charges, floating around the Intertoobz. I mean, really. Check some of these out.

This content is imported from Twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

Alleged Russian agent Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin pictured with Gov. Scott Walker in 2015 https://t.co/bU46SgV172 pic.twitter.com/kATwZoT2WR — Rebecca Buck (@RebeccaBuck) July 16, 2018

Oops, sorry. That's Scott Walker, the goggle-eyed homunculus hired by Koch Industries to manage their midwest subsidiary formerly known as the state of Wisconsin, and recently appointed midwest sales director for the Foxconn Company, grinning his fool head off with Ms. Butina. From the Capital-Times:

Butina wrote on her Russian-language blog (translated via Google Translate) that meeting Walker "will remain in my memory forever."



"With genuine interest and ready to ask a question on the topic of Russian-American relations, I went to him. And then something happened that I did not expect: the first words in many, many days in Russian, I heard from the future nominee in the US presidency from the Republican Party, who, having learned that I from Russia with a smile said 'Hello!', And during the conversation he remembered another word: 'Thank you!'" Butina wrote.

"We talked about Russia, I did not hear any aggression towards our country, the president or my compatriots," Butina wrote about her conversation with Walker. "How to know, maybe such meetings are the beginning of a new dialogue between Russia and the US and back from the Cold War to the peaceful existence of the two great powers ?!"

Confronted with this memento of the lovely time they had together, Walker had his spokescritter issue the following lame-ass statement to The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

Walker spokesman Brian Reisinger said by email that while Walker was in Tennessee, he "appeared in an atrium area while waiting to deliver his remarks, where event attendees had the chance to say hello. There were thousands of people at the convention and many of them approached the governor and asked to say hello and take a photo with him."

Just a friendly guy, our Scottie.

Something truly stinks of borscht in Wisconsin politics. Besides Walker, there are dozens of photos showing former Milwaukee County sheriff—and full-time Happy Meal medal recipient—David Clarke enjoying the hospitality in Moscow, and Wisconsin Senator Ron (Shreds of Freedom) Johnson was one of those senators who spent the past Fourth of July in Russia. (He, too, managed a lame-ass statement in the wake of the presidential debacle in Finland.) Ms. Butina's travels were general, all over the United States. Expect more embarrassing photos and lame-ass statements to come.

Respond to this post on the Esquire Politics Facebook page here.

Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io