A PRESIDENT weaponising his Department for Justice to pursue his political enemies.
That’s the charge thrown at Donald Trump this week after his tormenting New York prosecutor faces prosecution over a £15,000 mortgage fraud.
US President Donald Trump has been accused of weaponising his Department for Justice to pursue his political enemiesAFP
Trump’s allies are engaged in a wave of retribution against the former Biden administration
The indictment of Letitia James comes hot on the heels of charges for former FBI Director James Comey over lying under oath to Congress.
And Trump’s allies say that’s just the “appetiser” in a wave of retribution.
After four years of pursuing President Trump through the courts, raiding his home and attempting to render him ineligible to return to the White House — and even jail him — the cries from the Democrats and their media cheerleaders of facism and over-reach ring very hollow.
They’re trying to make plenty of heat, but after years of so-called political lawfare, so far there’s not much light.
Smoking gun
But just imagine the absolute eruption of righteous fury, wall-to-wall coverage and international condemnation that would be pouring down on the White House right now if it had emerged the Trump administration had accessed the communication records of eight Senators.
Because that is the smoking gun on ex-President Joe Biden’s desk in newly declassified documents related to their attempts to take down President Trump.
The Senate Judiciary Committee published proof that the FBI targeted the data of calls made and received by the sitting Republican lawmakers in the wake of the Capitol riots in January 2021.
I should be surprised that this isn’t absolutely bombshell news, yet most of the Trump- hating media here seem to be doing all they can to play the story down.
Ever since Richard Nixon was toppled in 1974 after covering up the bugging of the Democratic HQ at the now infamous Watergate complex, the suffix “gate” has been shoehorned on thousands of scandals. Rinka-gate, Lewinsky-gate, Party-gate, Pasty-gate Celeb-gate, Porn-gate, you name it.
Some are more serious than others, but it’s very rare that you hear anything branded worse than the original Watergate scandal.
Yet that’s what veteran Republican Senator Chuck Grassley declared this week when he unveiled details of the Biden administration’s communications snooping as part of the FBI’s Arctic Frost probe into electoral interference.
“Based on the evidence to date, Arctic Frost and related weaponisation by federal law enforcement under Biden was arguably worse than Watergate,” the Senator hit out.
And it was a view echoed by former FBI Special Agent Ren McEachern who told me this week the comparison was “not overblown”.
The Republicans are spitting tacks, not least at the utter hypocrisy of the left who howl when their side gets a knock on the door from the Feds, yet face far more serious allegations of executive overreach.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley branded it “spying on the president’s political opponents” which he called “a profound violation”.
“This is an abuse of power beyond Watergate, beyond J. Edgar Hoover, one that directly strikes at the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the First Amendment,” he added.
And some say there is bad blood across the Hill.
“The betrayal that the Senators feel is just about deeper than anything they have felt in a while,” Republican Congressman Ben Cline told me.
And he said in private “the Democrats are also mortified at the action that was taken against Republican Senators. It really cuts both ways.”
He added in hope: “I think we are going to see a unified front against that sort of action.”
As ever it fell to the President for the pithiest denunciation of the Special Counsel who led the Arctic Frost probe, with Mr Trump blasting: “Deranged Jack Smith got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. A real sleazebag!”
APThe former Biden administration is accused of using the FBI to snoop on Republican lawmakers[/caption]
‘Eye for an eye’
While there will undoubtedly be a long probe in the furore, if anything, the revelation of the Democrat’s hypocrisy gives the Trump administration cover to go further.
As one of Trump world’s most famous and pugnacious lawyers, Mike Davis demanded to know from the Democrats: “So indicting your political enemies is bad now? What changed?”
Davis, who runs the anti-left-wing lawfare Article III project, warns the Department for Justice is just getting going, suggesting Letitia James was “just the appetiser”.
But accepting the charge of eye for an eye, he insists “two wrongs don’t make a right but they do make it even”, warning more squeamish Republicans “we must stop being weak and stupid” and “it’s time to take the gloves off.”
Pursuing political opponents on corruption charges, fair or otherwise, used to be the domain of banana republics and Communist regimes.
These things were once best tested at the ballot box and left at that.
As Rep. Cline put it: “The US has a great tradition of the rule of law, we are the standard of the world. This is justice taking its course.”
And from where I’m sitting, the Democrats only have themselves to blame for unleashing this particular genie from the lamp.
Sir Keir Starmer insisted no UK ministers were involved in refusing to help prosecute two accused Chinese spiesGetty
SPYING scandals are rocking the news on both sides of the Atlantic this week – unless you are watching the major broadcasters.
Sir Keir Starmer’s insistence that “no ministers” had a hand in refusing to provide a British court with the evidence to prosecute two accused Chinese spies for fear of upsetting relations with Beijing, means attention is now firmly at the door of No10.
National security adviser Jonathan Powell is a political appointee answering directly to the PM, unlike his predecessors who have been neutral officials.
While the UK can take ZERO credit for bringing peace to Gaza after shamefully rewarding Hamas with diplomatic wins, Powell does have a pivotal role in the ongoing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
But that cannot be enough to save his skin, if as alleged, his fingerprints are all over this botched trial amid pressure from the Treasury.
US President Donald Trump is cranking up his rhetoric against China this weekend with new threats of export bans and tariffs, while Britain kowtows to protect already anaemic growth figures at risk from diminished trade.
A grubby, shameful and sorry saga for a nation that likes to think it punches above its weight.
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