In authoritarian Trump America integrity and honesty are history

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.8.2025

I have to acknowledge you often don’t appreciate someone until they’ve left the stage. William Webster met that criterion.

William Webster being sworn in as FBI Director by Chief Justice Warren Burger as President Jimmy Carter looks on – 2.23.1978

William Webster was a government official I never paid much attention to because I considered him to be an honest and equitable public servant. He performed his job and stood up for democracy and the rule of law.

12/02/2002 photograph attorney William Webster, former FBI and CIA director who resigned as chair of the Accounting Oversight Board during a press conference at Baker & McKenzie regarding conclusions reached by the Oversight Board. (Photo by Gerald Martineau/The The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Traits in short supply in MAGA America. And which we may not see again for a long time, if ever.