Here’s a novel concept: The FBI is not above the law.
In theory, of course, it’s true, as in no American is above the law.
But is it really true in the sense that its leaders can be brought to justice if they break the law?
That’ll be the day.
Ever hear of Jim Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok?
They were J. Edgar Hoover without the charm, spied on a presidential campaign without sufficient evidence, lied to the courts and never paid a price.
In fact, each got a lot richer thanks to the big shots who monetize the Hate Donald Trump fan clubs in cable TV and publishing houses.
Playing hardball
The unmistakable lesson is that crime, or something very much like crime, paid handsomely in their cases.
If they weren’t above the law, they were certainly beyond its reach.
So we must believe that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was speaking hopefully, not literally, when he told Fox Tuesday morning that unless FBI Director Christopher Wray turns over a document alleging Joe Biden sold his office as part of a $5 million bribery scheme when he was vice president, Congress will move to hold him in contempt.
“I personally called Director Wray and told him he needs to send that document,” McCarthy said.
“We have jurisdiction over this . . . And if he does not follow through with the law, we will move contempt charges against Christopher Wray and the FBI. They are not above the law.”
To which Wray effectively replied, go ahead, make my day, with the FBI later refusing to give up the document.
Republicans can pass their contempt citation, but it’s up to the Justice Department to turn contempt into a prosecution.
And anybody who thinks Attorney General Merrick Garland is going to prosecute Wray for shielding the Biden family hasn’t been paying attention.
Garland is the ringleader of the protect Biden club.
If Wray is held in contempt, Biden would probably give him a merit raise.
The document demand grows out of a whistleblower’s testimony before the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, where GOP chairman James Comer has been banging the drum loudly about the Bidens’ decades-long grift.
He used subpoena power to get bank records showing as many as nine members of the Biden gang got a cut of a big Chinese deal and recently revealed a complex web of bank accounts that Hunter Biden set up to receive and disburse huge sums from foreign paymasters.
As Comer and others have noted, no legitimate business moves money around that way through shell company accounts.
And what, they ask, was the actual product the Bidens were selling?
FBI ‘head fake’
In response to Comer’s demands and McCarthy’ threat, the FBI initially issued a boilerplate statement that sounded as if Wray might play ball:
“The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress’s oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have, and we continue to be in touch with members of Congress regarding this request.”
That was a head fake, for late Tuesday, Comer said the answer he got was a hard no, adding the “FBI’s decision to stiff-arm Congress and hide this information from the American people is obstructionist and unacceptable.”
He added that although he and Wray would talk Wednesday, the panel “will now be taking steps to hold the FBI Director in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a lawful subpoena.”
Perhaps, but Comer has to know he can’t count on any Democratic votes.
This will require Republican focus and unity — and thick skins to put up with the media abuse as it, too, protects the Bidens.
The conflict comes at an important moment in the many House investigations.
Other whistleblowers have also come forward, including more than 20 who told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI is deeply politicized in favor of Democrats and the far-left.
They said it singles out pro-life groups, Catholics and parents attending school board meetings as a way of intimidating those groups.
The whistleblowers also charged there is a pattern of top officials inflating cases beyond the evidence so they can be classified as domestic violence extremism, satisfying a favorite talking point of Democrats.
Three of the whistleblowers had their security clearances revoked as they prepared to testify, Fox reported.
Perhaps the most intriguing of those who came forward was Gary Shapley, the whistleblower who alleges the IRS has slow-walked the Hunter Biden case to avoid filing charges.
The so-called investigation is in its fifth year, yet it’s interesting that the suspect never demands an ending.
The only reasonable conclusion is that an honest resolution of the facts would mean a felony indictment with numerous counts.
Thus, we can assume Hunter Biden and his father are content to let the status quo linger as long as possible.
Not incidentally, Shapley was a supervisor in charge of the tax part of the case, and his testimony had an immediate impact, though surely not the kind he wanted.
He later said the agency responded to his claims by removing his entire 12-person team from the probe.
So retaliation is now part of the probe.
Showdown looms
The lesson so far is that, no matter what McCarthy and Comer say, the White House and executive agencies believe they are above the law, and will protect the president and his family for as long as they can.
Although it’s obvious that Joe Biden profited from and participated in the influence-peddling schemes, if justice comes, it will come despite the current leaders of federal law enforcement, not because of them.
That’s why the showdown over the document must result in either Congress getting the document or Wray being held in contempt.
Only when the obstructionists pay a personal price will they begin to calculate whether they want to risk their careers and reputations defending a corrupt president.
Big fan of Ron vs. Don
Count reader Mary Zaepfel as a former Donald Trump supporter who’s switching to Florida Gov Ron DeSantis.
She lists several reasons, starting with “I’m sick of Trump’s 3rd grade name-calling, like DeSanctimonious. It’s not presidential and frankly extremely juvenile.”
She’s believes Trump gave Dr. Anthony Fauci too much power during COVID and suspects Trump is “moving left” with his criticism of Florida’s six-week limit on abortions, which DeSantis signed.
“Finally,” she adds, “I want DeSantis as the 2024 GOP nominee because during the pandemic, he used common sense, he didn’t close down his state, he didn’t require vaccine mandates, etc. He’s the leader for me!”
Eric sure is ‘al’ mixed up
Reader Jonathan Kahn has an eagle’s eye for nonsense, and he found this gem in a New York Times report — Mayor Adams uses Al Sharpton as his a go-between with the Biden White House go-between.
Khan writes: “New York arguably has the two most powerful Democrats in Washington in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries,” yet Adams’the Mayor’s lobbyist is Al Sharpton?”