The Durham investigation has entered its terminal phases with little to show, occasioning celebration from the left. It looks like no more charges will be brought over the lies to the FISA court by the FBI, the spying on a presidential campaign, or the bending of the whole system into a corrupt servant of one political party. The process just drug everything out until it could close past the statute of limitations.
Meanwhile Carter Page, whose name was defamed by the lies used to spy on the presidential campaign -- and himself -- is likely to receive no compensation in civil court either. The fatal flaw for him was an inspector general report that described all the FBI lies as "errors" caused by a "sloppy" process: in other words, like the Durham investigation, the system protected itself from accountability.
Such is the best we can hope for out of the system: it is operating exactly as designed and intended.
UPDATE: DOJ obstructed its own investigation into HRC, argues RealClearInvestigations. The investigation into Team Trump is being handled differently, with an eye towards not just prosecution but shutting down the whole organization as a political force.
UPDATE: DOJ issues subpoena to conservative group in Alabama demanding: “any draft legislation, proposed legislation, or model legislation.” This included all their communique on the subject, e.g., “any social media postings.” All such would be protected First Amendment activity.
5 comments:
I was not aware that the DOJ has the authority to step into and take control of State legislative process. I was also unaware that drafting a document precursor to forming legislation was an illegal act. What's illegal about it, to a degree that a judge would sign off on a subpoena?
I don't think we're getting the whole story somehow.
They're suing the state over the legislation (a ban on transgender surgery), so they're claiming these documents are relevant to the lawsuit.
According to the link, the Biden administration is suing (and thus the DOJ is suing) Alabama over a law they feel violates transgender civil rights. The subpoena is on suspicion that this group may have helped to draft model versions of the law that the DOJ feels is illegal/unconstitutional.
I agree with your assessment that the right to petition your government is a protected civil right as well -- perhaps even more important than the right of children to transgender surgeries -- and as such should be not in principle be potentially criminal. However, I imagine that DOJ thinks that there is a colorable offense in having proposed an unconstitutional reform or one that violates civil rights in some way; perhaps one of those 'under color of law' charges. Still, I would think that would pertain mostly to those acting under color of law, rather than to an activist group that is merely petitioning for change from outside the government.
Remember the phrase "A threat to our democracy."
Well, I don't think they are ostensibly targeting them. I think ostensibly they're digging for motives that would help them take down the state legislation. But, after observing the feds for the last 6 years, I'm not really sure how to read their motives anymore.
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