From the Right
By Don Schmitz
Trump was indicted (again) last week, this time accused of mishandling classified documents. The first indictment in April was by leftist New York DA Alvin Bragg, and is such a farcical contrivance over record-keeping that it has been roundly pilloried by analysts on both the left and the right. The indictment this week by DOJ special counsel Jack Smith is much more serious, alleging retention and display of sensitive military documents by the former president. The sensitivity of what the DOJ charges is chilling, including war plans of our military and foreign adversaries. Contemptible that such documents weren’t secure.
After reviewing the indictment, I am struck by certain facts that we will watch unfold, including the apparent bugging of Trump’s offices by the DOJ, and that the classification process is built upon executive orders and not law. Regardless, a large part of the indictment is his alleged failure to comply with subpoenas, purported misrepresentations, and assertions that he tried to destroy documents. This and many other things will be intently discussed as the trial unfolds, and it is foolish to prognosticate until they do, but many will nonetheless.
What is worthy of discussion today is the context of how this will be received by the American people, for we are about to reap a bitter harvest from the years of prosecutorial and political abuse and misrepresentation against Trump that is now well documented.
To be clear, I fervently hold that no one is above the law, and if Trump committed felonies and endangered our national security, he should pay the price if convicted beyond a reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the following isn’t a case of “whatabouts,” but a frank discussion on why so many Americans view anything coming from the DOJ and FBI with a jaundiced eye. Their reputation is in tatters, with most Americans no longer trusting them, and they ruined it by engaging in immoral and illegal political actions against candidate and then President Trump, as documented in reports from the inspector general and the recently released Durham report. The sordid tale of abuses and lies are lengthy. Then, of course, there were the obviously politically driven impeachment votes by the Democrats, the second one after he had been voted out of office.
Impeachment is to remove a sitting president, but the Democrats sought to declaw him from running again. The second time, he was impeached for incitement of insurrection. If there was credible proof he did so, why didn’t the DOJ charge him with treason? Because it was a political make-believe charade.
We have observed the double standards at the DOJ and FBI with anger and sadness. Hillary Clinton deleted 30,000 emails three weeks after receiving a subpoena from Congress, but disgraced FBI director James Comey refused to file charges. Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, replete with documentation of felonies, has been under “investigation” by the FBI for years, with no indictment. When President Trump discussed with Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky the reopening of their investigation of Hunter Biden and the energy company Burisma, Nancy Pelosi’s Congress impeached him for it, but when then Vice President Joe Biden threatened Ukraine in 2016 with losing $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees unless they fired the investigator of Burisma (of which he later publicly boasted), there were no repercussions. Today the FBI is being forced, despite its strong resistance, to release to Congress documents that the Biden family, and President Biden himself, engaged in a $5 million bribery scheme involving Burisma. Additionally, we have seen the pictures of the boxes of classified documents that Biden took as VP, kept at his think tank and in his garage. They report that he is cooperating, but that is what they say …
No matter how rich and powerful, no one is above the law, at least that is the way it’s supposed to be. It is a bona fide concern that we are devolving into the authoritarian model whereupon political opponents are destroyed by those in power and their law enforcement allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin had popular opposition leader Alexei Navalny charged with and convicted of fraud, whereupon he is now spending years in jail barred from running from office. I’m sure the “evidence” provided to the court was compelling. This is all no protection for Trump if he broke the law, but his public defense, and possible his defense in court, is that he is being set up again by a corrupt system that is willing to lie, fabricate, and falsify evidence. The fact that this narrative is something that resonates with millions of Americans is dreadful and based upon the real world abuses we have observed, which many have tried to sweep under the rug. This is bigger than Trump, bigger than Biden, and distressing for a nation of laws, not men.