Asha Rangappa

“Though my parents were professionals and expected me to go to college, they were immigrants from India with no idea about how the admissions process worked in the United States or the importance of standardized tests.”

“White Southerners created an entire cosmetics industry equating beauty with whiteness and trained a string of winning Miss Americas who embodied their racial ideal in a national representative.”

“The Espionage Act is very broadly written. It doesn't make distinguish - or it doesn't make distinctions between categories of people that can receive and publish information and under what circumstances.”

“The F.B.I. pursues cases against individuals and organizations, not topics - this allows each case to have the flexibility to go in the direction the evidence leads, regardless of what happens with other, related cases.”

“The idea of dual sovereignty rests on the premise that the power of the states to prosecute crimes existed before the creation of the federal government, and is reserved to them by the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.”

“For wealthy or privileged students, applying to Ivy League schools or elite schools is sort of expected of them. If you go to a prep school, for example, that's just what your guidance counsellor tells you.”

“Exposing the activities of a foreign intelligence service renders them ineffective, since it removes plausible deniability, which is the hallmark of covert intelligence operations.”

“The Trump administration's assault against the FBI's efforts to assess a national security threat posed by suspected foreign agents only raises more questions about what went on in 2016.”

“The assumption that everyone in government is a bad actor imperils our democracy.”

“Facebook is primarily a mechanism for bonding, not bridging. Studies show that in the vast majority of cases, people live in self-made echo chambers on Facebook that reinforce their existing views of the world.”

“I know firsthand from my experience working counterintelligence investigations for the FBI that kicking a diplomat out of the country is no small thing.”

“When it comes to the Russia investigation, President Trump would be wise to review Scandal 101: Plausible deniability is your friend.”

“Field offices are evaluated in part based on their success in following through on leads and making cases that result in arrests and convictions. No case agent worth their salt would remain quiet if their cases were closed in the face of a continuing threat.”

“We are a nation founded on distrust of government power, and questioning that power is essential to promoting transparency and accountability.”

“I was a pretty unsavvy applicant, and I am grateful that the dean of admissions at Princeton chose to take a chance on a girl from an average public high school in southern Virginia.”

“The idea of interviewing someone is that you are getting their first off-the-cuff impression or response. You don't want them to have the chance to really prepare.”

“Students come away with a clear message about how admissions works: If you have money, connections or 'insider' knowledge, you have a leg up. It's hardly surprising that many students of modest or lower means decide it's not even worth playing.”

“I mean, the FBI has to assure people who come and help them that they're going to be able to keep their identities confidential and protect them.”

“Counterintelligence is, in effect, chasing ghosts, which is why the tools used to investigate foreign intelligence activity are secret, like human sources or electronic surveillance.”

“In practice, presidents have typically tended to think of themselves not just as stewards for their party, but also of the presidency itself - preserving the full scope of its constitutional power for their successors is part of their job.”