Read this post very carefully. You are
dead wrong about extreme political bias not being a basis for dismissing an indictment or shutting down an investigation. First of all, merely sending political messages and discussing extreme political views using government devices during work hours is a violation of the
Hatch Act. But as
the OIG's report pointed out, the "partisan text messages" at issue here were far from innocuous "evidence of political affiliation." Rather, they "implie[d] a willingness to take official action to impact the presidential candidate’s electoral prospects." Such activity would violate the Hatch Act's criminal provisions.
See 18 U.S.C. § 595 (outlawing use of "official authority for the purpose of interfering with, or affecting, the nomination or the election of any candidate for the office of President"). This means that the agents who came up with this "insurance policy" in order to "stop" Trump in service to "le Resistance" have all committed crimes, and that can't be ameliorated by charging Paul Manafort or a few random Russian internet trolls. Moreover, it's a crime to use government authority to intentionally deprive someone of their Constitutional rights, or to use it in retaliation for exercising a Constitutional right.
See 18 U.S.C. §§ 241-242. This means that if the implicated agents knew or should have known that they were conducting searches and seizures without probable cause in order to harm a political adversary, they're all in on a criminal conspiracy. You and I apparently disagree about the trustworthiness of the alleged evidence which formed the basis of the Russia investigation, and whether it constituted probable cause for the crime of "collusion" with Russia. That's fine, we can agree to disagree. I will however point out that nobody has been charged with that crime, and we have evidence that the agents who initiated the Russia probe knew "there’s no big there there.” If you think the Court will refuse to terminate a roving criminal investigation which was itself
a crime to commence, you're simply mistaken. A pervasive pattern of criminal conduct on the part of investigators can indeed constitute "outrageous government misconduct."
See Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165 (1952);
U.S. v. Russell, 411 U.S. 423 (1973);
U.S. v. Salerno, 481 U.S. 739 (1987);
Breithaupt v. Abram, 352 U.S. 432 (1957).
Don't get me wrong. I am not of the opinion that merely holding
biased views is grounds for dismissing an indictment or investigation. But that is not the factual scenario I see here. I see a baseless investigation which was itself the product of political bias against the targets, and which was conducted in a biased fashion by a network of extremely biased investigators.
See my response above.
Of course I wouldn't "presume" that state actors are evil in any given cause. However, in this case, the messages exchanged pretty much eliminate any innocent explanation. You might be willing to indulge their claims of naivety, but I'm not. Millions of Americans aren't.
But don't gimme your self-righteous tripe. Let's be real: the federal bureaucrats in "Le Resistance" attempted to take out Donald Trump for political reasons by abusing their access to federal law enforcement resources. It was effectively an attempted assassination. They knew
exactly what they were doing – they just never thought they'd get caught. And for that matter,
you know exactly what they were trying to do. I don't believe that you're concerned about "Russian collusion." I don't believe that you're concerned about rule of law, fascism, social justice, etc. I think you, like everyone else on the Left,
HATE Donald Trump with a passion, and you want him impeached, imprisoned, or dead. You are willing to forgive any level of misconduct so long as it leads to Trump's demise. I'm sure you'd deny that accusation, but I'll never believe you now.
The FBI and DOJ officials implicated here, e.g. Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Sally Yates, Bruce Ohr, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, and even Robert Mueller, all rolled the dice on their little "insurance policy" and they rolled snake eyes. They raised the stakes, and now it's time for them to pay. Since we're apparently playing for blood, it's only fair that we get to see a little suffering. Ya know? I wanna hear "Moscow Mueller" beg for his life. Of course I realize that only a few of these people will ever face justice (probably only Strzok, Page, and McCabe). But in a perfect world, the members of "Le Resistance" face exposure to the following federal crimes, as codified in the
U.S. Criminal Code (i.e.
Title 18 of the United States Code):
- 18 U.S.C. § 201 (bribery of witnesses)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 205 & 207 (conflicts of interest)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 210 & 211 (procurement of appointive public office)
- 18 U.S.C. § 241 (conspiracy to violate civil rights)
- 18 U.S.C. § 242 (willful deprivation of rights under color of law)
- 18 U.S.C. § 245(b)(1) (interfering with protected political activities)
- 18 U.S.C. § 401 (contempt of court)
- 18 U.S.C. § 595 (Hatch Act - administrative interference with political process)
- 18 U.S.C. § 610 (Hatch Act - coercion of political activity)
- 18 U.S.C. § 792 (concealing violators of §§ 793 and 794)
- 18 U.S.C. § 794 (delivering defense info to foreign government)
- 18 U.S.C. § 871 (threats against president)
- 18 U.S.C. § 872 (use of official office for extortion)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341–1351, generally (mail or wire fraud, in its various forms)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1501–1521, generally (relating to various forms of "obstruction of justice")
- 18 U.S.C. § 1519 (falsification of records in federal investigation)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968) (organized racketeering and corruption, i.e. "RICO" violations)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2234 (exceeding authority of warrant)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2235 (malicious procurement of warrant)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2382 (misprision of treason)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2383 (insurrection)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2384 (seditious conspiracy)
- 18 U.S.C. § 2385 (advocating overthrow of government)
- 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510–2522 (unauthorized interception & disclosure of private communications)
As you probably know, "obstruction of justice," "false statements," "wire fraud," and "RICO" are the basic go-to charges because it's easier to persuade juries to convict, and the range of penalties for these crimes is relatively high. Whatever the maximum amount of jail time is, that's what I want for these people. They wanted to be martyrs, so I say let's grant their wish.
