Not Lawfare. Justice.
The estimated half a billion tax dollars spent by the DOJ over the past four years to pursue Donald Trump and his supporters demands accountability. And consequences.
After enduring nearly a decade of torment at the hands of hyperpartisan, unaccountable prosecutors and judges, President-elect Donald Trump appears poised to make good on his promise to hold government officials responsible for destroying public trust in the country’s once-revered legal and judicial system. Trump repeatedly pledged on the campaign trail that he would seek payback for the costly pursuits of his family, his businesses, his closest aides, and his supporters if elected president.
But ever since Trump’s decisive victory, many anti-Trump pundits who either endorsed or turned a blind eye to the vengeful weaponization of Joe Biden’s Department of Justice now are predictably demanding a “lawfare” ceasefire on the baseless assumption that the American people want to move on.
Fox News and National Review legal analyst Andrew McCarthy just posted a myopic column tsk-tsking plans to investigate wrongdoing not only related to the criminal cases against the incoming president but by members of the January 6 select committee and the Department of Justice’s ongoing prosecution of January 6 protesters. “Winning was his retribution,” McCarthy declared. “Against the odds and thanks to the Supreme Court, he was able to make an effective electoral case against lawfare because, at a gut level, Americans reject the rigged, punitive exploitation of law enforcement. Neither the public nor the courts are going to tolerate retributive lawfare.”
McCarthy was particularly offended at comments made by Steve Bannon during his November 26 “War Room” show. (I was a guest that day to discuss Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to dismiss the January 6 case in Washington.) Bannon, who was imprisoned this year by the Biden DOJ for defying a subpoena from the illicit J6 committee, again warned that judges, prosecutors, and others would face investigation for “destroying lives.”
Despite ample evidence to support Bannon’s claims, McCarthy claimed it was “disturbing…that the actual president-elect would amplify Bannon’s battle cry for lawfare of the worm-turns variety.”
Instead, McCarthy offered, the task should fall to Congress and the DOJ inspector general. (Michael Horowitz has a mixed record of success and still has not issued his findings of an internal investigation into the DOJ’s involvement in January 6 including the use of FBI informants.) “[In] the absence of bribery, evidence tampering, subornation of perjury, or a similar, patent crime, the Justice Department has no business investigating federal judges, the House January 6 committee, Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, or Trump’s other tormentors — not regarding judgment calls in carrying out their undoubted official duties.”
Says who?
Julie is correct to go after McCarthy. I stopped listening to him years ago when I realized he was just another cog on the wheel of the deep state.