The Justice Department’s probe of former President Donald Trump is not the first time an ex-president has been investigated. The DOJ’s inquiry into the possession of classified documents is now on hold after a judge granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master to oversee the records. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten warns that the Deep State has already begun to play the victim after the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. He says the DOJ will try and protect its politically-motivated actions by going after its critics.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose meek demeanor has served as a useful facade for his department’s malevolence in pursuing political foes – and who now appears to be threatening the whistleblowers who have exposed it – was indignant as he addressed the half the country that believes a rubicon has been crossed thanks to his raid.
Rather than address the criticism over the unprecedented act—one that could’ve only been justified were it totally bulletproof, since we’re talking about the raid of the home of the former president, spurred by a document dispute with an angry anti-Trump archivist—an act enabling a pre-textual fishing expedition, which was arguably lawless, for which the Department originally refused to show us the underlying affidavit, then released a heavily redacted one, while heavily redacting the document explaining why it had to do all the redactions—well, Garland targeted the critics by casting them, not the DOJ/FBI, as the aggressors.
FBI Director Christopher Wray echoed these remarks in a statement, writing: “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans.”
Message delivered.
Don’t mind the contrast in Hillary emails and Biden laptop versus Trump-Russia; or the railroading of January 6-ers versus the kid glove treatment for BLM rioters; never mind authorities’ alleged concocting and entrapment in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case; or the tagging of parents critical of school boards as terrorists, or associating dissent over COVID lockdowns or skepticism over election integrity with domestic terror threats–while whistleblowers say the FBI is inflating those threats. Nevermind the shackling of a former presidential trade adviser, or the seizing of a congressman’s cell phone, or the siccing of the FBI by one administration on its predecessor and likely next chief opponent.
Now, the institutions—the DOJ and FBI—weren’t the aggressors. They were the victims. And they’re singularly focused on defending their aggrieved institutions, not the Constitution.