Alongside the Constitution, the American people benefit from an unwritten legal system of norms and traditions not written down in any legal book. Among these unspoken rules is one that the US political elite often practices above the rules.
Remember the words of former President Obama unconstitutional act of war In Iraq and Syria in 2015 or former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper perjury Former CIA Director John Brennan when questioned by the Senate in 2013 about the NSA’s massive espionage of American citizens. perjury About the CIA Illegal espionage and torture.
A particularly high-profile case of 2016 was the FBI pardon of Hillary Clinton. off hook After it was discovered that it was illegal for her to share confidential information through a private email server.rear NBC News reported “Clinton broke federal rules with email server, audit found,” FBI Director James Comey says The FBI did find “evidence of possible violations of laws and regulations regarding the handling of classified information,” but “in reviewing the investigation into the improper handling and removal of classified information, we found no cases that would support criminal charges.” about these facts. “
He added, “I want to be clear, this does not imply that persons engaged in this activity under similar circumstances will not suffer any harm. We are often subject to administrative sanctions, but that is not what we are deciding right now.”
In other words, FBI agents decided not to enforce the law against Hillary Clinton. One of the reasons for this was that he had neglected his duties in similar cases before, and that he was reluctant to do so again this time. Such discretionary leniency from one government henchman to another depends on whether the powers in Washington broadly agree on who is on which side of the state’s wrath.
on thursday Department of Justice filed complaint The federal criminal charges against former U.S. President and 2024 GOP front-runner Donald Trump will be the first federal criminal charges facing a U.S. president for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing recovery efforts.And this is months after President Trump prosecution in manhattan A US president has been charged with paying hush money to Stormy Daniels for the first time.
The existing Democrats and Republicans banded together against Mr. Trump until he irreversibly won the support of key voters in 2016. Since then, his status as an outsider and de facto leadership of the anti-establishment insurrection, despite the fact that the strong Republican forces have partially accepted him into the party (perhaps out of political necessity). has survived, and its momentum has increased significantly under the influence of the Republican administration. break up with him Mitch McConnell and Mike Pence over their January 6 response and election theft allegations.
Former U.S. President and Outsider Trump’s Unique Status face criminal charges Bring special occasions. Perhaps the unprecedented hatred the establishment has for Trump has led them in some ways to go after him. never experienced before The statement by the former US president could undermine the Comey-esque logic that countless government officials are immune from facing legal problems for possible crimes.
In many cases, it only takes a single breach of etiquette by a powerful authority to overthrow long-established norms. Democrats had an opportunity to learn this lesson in the 2010s. changed the process Drastically reduced justice nominations in a major backfire that paved the way for the current 6-to-3 conservative majority of Supreme Court justices.
A model of political opponents facing unprecedented legal action could be a game-changer if applied following Trump’s indictment.
As the magazine’s founding editor-in-chief, if Republicans are right to denounce the indictment of Donald Trump as a “clearly political blow.” daily wire Ben Shapiro claimedThey should be more concerned with the discretionary and non-objective patterns of application of the judicial system in general than with individual cases of the judicial system.
For American public officials to be more consistently accountable to the legal system they claim to govern, they must allow plausible criminal acts of any magnitude with little guise of objectivity. We must abolish the norm that
America’s political elite loathed President Trump and were willing to sacrifice the norm for political leaders to transcend the law. It can ultimately hurt them more than it hurts public opponents.
Rather than making the mistake of treating this as an isolated incident, the right will always adopt a model that will apply legal challenges against Trump to all civil servants regardless of political affiliation or bureaucratic influence. should be viewed as
Stop hiding criminals in offices of power behind arbitrary standards of accountability. Instead, start normalizing the investigation and prosecution of criminal political leaders.
Saul Jimmett works at the Cato Institute’s Global Freedom and Prosperity Center. His books have been published by Quillette, American Spectator, Cato Institute, Foundation for Economy Education and others.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
