When the Bureaucrats Spy on Senators: The American Leviathan in Action

Last week’s bombshell claim—that Christopher Wray and Attorney General Garland signed off on the FBI’s surveillance of GOP senators because any probe touching elected officials must be approved as a Sensitive Investigative Matter (SIM)—should shock every defender of constitutional government.

If true, it confirms what many have long feared: that the administrative apparatus of the federal state—the American Leviathan—no longer views itself as subordinate to our elected branches, but as a power unto itself.

It tells us that the Leviathan has fully turned on its masters.

The Administrative State Has Forgotten Who’s in Charge

The Founders built this Republic on a simple idea: that the people rule themselves through their elected representatives.

The FBI, the DOJ, and every other agency of the executive branch exist to serve that constitutional framework—not to subvert it.

Yet what we are witnessing today is the inevitable consequence of letting unelected bureaucrats believe they are the government. They now act as if their judgment supersedes that of Congress and the American voter. When the security apparatus decides it can spy on senators—the very people charged with overseeing it—you don’t have a constitutional republic anymore. You have a bureaucracy enforcing its own will.

This Is the American Leviathan

In American Leviathan, I argue that what began a century ago as an “expert” administrative class has grown into a full-blown, self-perpetuating regime. It is not accountable to the ballot box, it does not answer to elected authority, and it has little regard for constitutional limits.

These bureaucrats see themselves as the true guardians of the state—entitled to act “for the good of the nation,” even when that means violating the law or undermining elected officials.

This mentality is exactly what we see now in the actions of the FBI and DOJ.

They believe they decide. They determine who is acceptable.

They will “protect democracy”—even if it means destroying its core principle: that government derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.

The Founders Warned Us

James Madison warned that “the accumulation of all powers… in the same hands… may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” What do you call it when the agency that enforces the law, decides the law, and secretly investigates the lawmakers—all without meaningful oversight?

That’s not hyperbole. That’s the textbook definition of tyranny. And it’s exactly what happens when unelected bureaucrats are allowed to operate as a fourth, unaccountable branch of government.

What Must Be Done

This moment demands courage. It demands clarity.

If the reports are true, those responsible—Wray, Garland, and every bureaucrat involved—must be investigated and held accountable. That should include jail time. Congress must reclaim its authority, eliminate the legal shields that allow secret investigations of elected officials, and dismantle the structures that insulate these agencies from real oversight.

We cannot keep pretending that a few “bad actors” are the problem. The problem is the system itself—the Administrative State. It was built to erode self-government, to replace citizen authority with bureaucratic control. And unless we confront it directly, it will continue to grow more brazen.

A Test of the Republic

When the state spies on its elected representatives, it is sending a message: We are in charge now.

The question before us is whether the American people—and their leaders—will tolerate that.

Because once the Leviathan begins devouring its creators, there’s no turning back.

This is not about partisanship or political advantage. This is about whether the United States remains a constitutional republic—or whether it quietly becomes something else entirely: a bureaucratic empire run by unelected men who think they rule by divine right.

It’s time to remind them they do not.