[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Politics.]
By Frank Miele
Real Clear Politics
The unraveling of the Obama administration’s Russia Hoax sped up exponentially in the last two weeks, as the case against Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn collapsed and the acting director of national intelligence declassified Obama-era documents that revealed a concerted effort to undermine the incoming Trump administration.
But despite substantial evidence of malfeasance by not just President Obama, but also by then-FBI Director James Comey and Susan Rice (Flynn’s predecessor as national security adviser), among others, there is growing concern that nothing will ever happen to bring to justice the conspirators in what President Trump calls Obamagate.
That concern was highlighted last week by Attorney General William Barr’s pronouncement that both Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden were off-limits.
“As to President Obama and Vice President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,” Barr said regarding U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Russia probe. “Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”
So just hold on a minute. Obama and Biden could get off scot-free “whatever their level of involvement”? Why is that? And if the attorney general is afraid to look at wrongdoing at the highest level, how can he be expected to put the Constitution first?
Barr used the excuse that he is protecting our electoral integrity by making sure that politics stays out of criminal investigations.
“The legal tactic has been to gin up allegations of criminality by one’s political opponents based on the flimsiest of legal theories,” Barr said. “This is not good for political life, and it’s not good for the criminal justice system. And as long as I’m attorney general, the criminal justice system will not be used for partisan political ends.”
That’s sure convenient for Biden, coming at the end of three years when partisan politics led to the phony Russia collusion investigation against President Trump, followed by a separate political hit job in the form of the Ukraine-phone-call impeachment hoax. But seeking the truth should be neither partisan, nor political. It should be the essential ingredient of criminal justice, as well as public life.
Barr, however, apparently thinks that the American people do not deserve to have the truth before they choose between Biden and Trump in November.
“We live in a very divided country right now, and I think it’s critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make the choice between President Trump or Biden based on robust debate of policy issues,” he said. “Can’t allow this to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate.”
That rhetoric is totally irresponsible. Debate on policy issues is not the only factor in an election, and if Barr is deferring investigations or declining prosecutions because of political concerns, then that is eerily reminiscent of how the Obama Justice Department (in the form of Comey’s fiat) gave a pass to Hillary Clinton in 2016 because she was running for president. Whether Biden is guilty or innocent of participation in a plot against Trump, we deserve to have the investigation carried out now, so that we can make fully informed decisions as voters.
After Barr’s comments on Monday, Trump supporter Lou Dobbs unloaded on the attorney general during the opening segment of his Fox Business program.
“It is this Department of Justice … that seemingly continues to play cover for the Deep State, refusing to prosecute … Comey for leaking memos with classified information, refusing to charge former FBI Deputy Director and then Acting Director Andy McCabe for lying to investigators, and it was Barr who praised former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein despite Rosenstein helping to launch the Mueller Witch Hunt, which was fraudulent from the very beginning.”
Dobbs was joined by Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, who said that the latest pronouncement by Barr had proven that “the Justice Department ain’t gonna do justice,” so it is up to Trump “to appoint a special counsel outside the Justice Department to figure out if any prosecutions need to be pursued.”
When Dobbs challenged Fitton to name anyone who could be trusted to act as special counsel who “isn’t already sold out to the establishment, isn’t already sold out to the Deep State,” Fitton came up with only one candidate — Sidney Powell, the attorney who has body-slammed the corrupt Justice Department in the course of a few short months and got prosecutors to cry uncle when she proved that Gen. Flynn had been railroaded on trumped-up charges.
Whether it’s Powell or someone else (law professor Jonathan Turley, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, former U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy come to mind) it is now becoming apparent that a special counsel is the only hope for justice. Attorney General Barr admitting that he is making investigative decisions based on perceived impacts on the November election is direct evidence that he can’t be in charge of this matter. Politics should be irrelevant.
More importantly, in the event that Trump were defeated in November, the incoming Democratic president would almost certainly shut down any ongoing investigations by the Justice Department into Obama, Biden, Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan or former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. The only chance to make sure that politics plays no role in the investigation is to appoint a special counsel, who would proceed without regard to the outcome of the upcoming election.
This is really the only hope for getting to the truth.
If you think that Sen. Lindsey Graham and the Senate Republicans will get to the bottom of the plot against President Trump, you had better think twice — which is certainly appropriate for anything involving the two-faced Graham. After dragging his feet for 17 months since becoming the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham announced last week that he will ask his committee to subpoena documents and testimony from more than 50 witnesses who have direct knowledge of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s bogus investigation of Trump’s supposed Russian collusion.
That’s great, but anyone who thinks that Graham will be able to wrangle 50-plus hostile witnesses and their attorneys before his committee in the scant 163 days prior to the election (during a summer session in Congress in an election year yet!), is oblivious to the D.C. dance step known as the RINO crawl. Lots of caterwauling, virtually no forward progress, and then two more years to avoid responsibility before the next election panic.
As in almost every aspect of his successful presidency, Trump must act alone if he wants results. Executive orders by this president have been far more effective than congressional action in making America great again. It is absolutely vital that President Trump once again seize the day and utilize his constitutional authority to appoint a special counsel to investigate the origins of the Russia collusion hoax and bring charges against those who violated the law in their zeal to “protect” the nation from its duly elected president.
But that can’t be the end of it. In order to assure moral justice, President Trump must also appoint a separate special counsel to investigate Biden for his self-confessed role in bribing the president of Ukraine back in 2016.
You remember the story. After all, President Trump was impeached over it because he dared to ask for information about what Biden did to assure the firing of the prosecutor general who was looking into the role of Biden’s son Hunter as a board member of the corrupt Ukrainian energy company Burisma. That’s how things roll in Washington. Think about it. Trump was impeached for asking for evidence of criminal wrongdoing while the person who admitted the wrongdoing is about to be nominated as the Democratic candidate for president!
Last week, audio recordings were released that confirmed Biden had used the threat of withholding $1 billion in aid to force Ukraine’s then-President Petro Poroshenko to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Most damning is that although Poroshenko bowed to the threat, he proclaimed that he had no evidence of wrongdoing by Shokin. Now, current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the contents of the leaked conversations “might be perceived, qualified as high treason.” He is launching his own investigation into the Biden affair, but we have no idea when that will be completed.
So where does that leave us?
According to recent polls, Biden stands a strong chance of defeating President Trump on Nov. 3. If he does, then wouldn’t it be entirely fitting that the first two years of his presidency should be tainted by a special counsel probe, followed by an impeachment trial over interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs?
If that doesn’t guarantee moral justice, it sure would be poetic justice.
Frank Miele, the retired editor of the Daily Inter Lake in Kalispell Mont., is a columnist for RealClearPolitics. His books — including “The Media Matrix: What If Everything You Know Is Fake?” — are available from his Amazon author page. Visit him at HeartlandDiaryUSA.com to read his daily commentary or follow him on Facebook @HeartlandDiaryUSA or on Twitter @HeartlandDiary.
[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Politics.]