Dear Reader, 

No one likes to be investigated, and the powerful least of all. The powerful, of course, have the greatest ability to defend and deflect. They have access to media platforms, eager surrogates, and legal advocates. There are a few favorite gambits – attack the investigators, exclaim “witch hunt,” blame politics. 

But it’s a bit of a trick for the powerful person to appear sympathetic; how does the powerful target engender the sympathy and support of the average person? Here is where a great rhetorical inversion comes in handy. There is the proclamation of innocence, the accusation of overreach, and then the kicker is some variant of this ominous warning: “If they can do this to me, they can do this to you.” You see? We are all in this together. I may be powerful, but this threat to me is an even greater threat to you, because you are not powerful. Donald Trump was a great lover of this approach. He twice tweeted a poster meme with this in block letters: “IN REALITY, THEY’RE NOT AFTER ME, THEY’RE AFTER YOU. I’M JUST IN THE WAY.” And with that flourish, the gap between most and least powerful is rhetorically bridged.

Most recently it is Rudy Giuliani, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), whose former office applied for search warrants for his premises and electronic devices. Giuliani recently warned, "When something like this happens, and it goes to fruition, if they can do what they just did to me to you — they can do it to you."