{"id":2355018,"date":"2024-10-15T06:51:02","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-york-times-gaslights-about-political-prosecutions\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T06:54:59","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:54:59","slug":"the-new-york-times-gaslights-about-political-prosecutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-york-times-gaslights-about-political-prosecutions\/","title":{"rendered":"The New York Times Gaslights About Political Prosecutions"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-new-york-times-gaslights-about-political-prosecutions%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2355018&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>S the respondents raising concerns about\u2064 Trump&#8217;s potential\u200c interference with the DOJ during a second term, framing their fears within\u2063 the context of maintaining the integrity\u200c of\u200b the \u200claw. Yet, this narrative omits\u200c the extensive history \u2064of politically motivated leaks that characterized the first Trump administration,\u200c which were largely orchestrated by \u2062individuals \u2063within the DOJ and FBI. These\u200d leaks contributed significantly to the narrative surrounding the\u2064 so-called Russia collusion investigation, which, \u200das \u2063has been\u2063 documented, was rife with\u200c bias and misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>Bazelon and Schwartz advocate \u2063for the \u2064principle that laws \u200dmust\u2063 be applied \u200cequally to \u2062all, yet they\u2064 overlook\u200d the selective enforcement and\u2063 the disparity in how various political figures have been treated \u2062under \u200bthe law.\u200d The authors argue that without investigations into the former president&#8217;s actions, \u200dthe credibility of laws may be undermined; \u2062however, this argument fails\u200d to account for\u2063 the context in which these\u2064 investigations are occurring, specifically the perceived partisan motivations behind them.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, the notion \u2063that\u2064 the DOJ and FBI are bastions of impartiality stands in stark contrast to \u2062the documented evidence of\u200c their political biases, particularly in high-profile cases. The article\u2063 highlights \u200cthe concerns of\u200b individuals who perceive Trump&#8217;s presidency \u2062as a\u2063 direct threat\u2063 to the non-partisan functioning of these institutions, yet it ignores the real-life implications of using these\u2064 agencies as instruments of political warfare.<\/p>\n<p>the \u200bdiscourse surrounding \u2064the future of the DOJ and the \u2064implications of\u200b a possible second Trump presidency reflects deeper divisions within the political landscape, where\u200b narratives of partisanship and activism\u200c intersect \u200dwith the rule of\u200d law. The debate\u200b is less about the malignancy\u200d of one individual \u200cand more \u200dabout the systemic\u200c issues that \u200bhave emerged through the\u200c interplay of political power, the justice system, and\u200c public perception.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The New York Times published a 5,000-word article asserting that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy because a second term Trump Department of Justice could potentially prosecute members of the Democrat Party.<\/p>\n<p>Authors Emily Bazelon and Mattathias Schwartz make this argument not only after a first Trump term with zero political prosecutions by Trump appointees but after a shocking and unprecedented nationwide lawfare campaign by Democrats against Trump and other Republicans.<\/p>\n<p>The Times headline is &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/10\/03\/magazine\/trump-justice-department-rivals.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Why Legal Experts Are Worried About a Second Trump Presidency<\/a>.&rdquo; The subhed added, &ldquo;In a survey of 50 members of the D.C. legal establishment, many warn that Trump could follow through on his threats to prosecute his political adversaries.&rdquo; The term &ldquo;gaslighting&rdquo; has gained popularity in recent years, a reference to the 1944 movie &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0036855\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gaslight<\/a>&rdquo; about a husband who manipulates his wife into thinking she is insane. Even in a sea of media manipulation, there is perhaps no better example of gaslighting than this piece.<\/p>\n<p>The article begins with an unsubstantiated claim that Trump seeks to engage in political prosecutions. The only quote offered in support of this claim is Trump saying people who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-adopts-election-reform-bill-that-stops-some-voters-from-automatically-receiving-absentee-ballots\/\" title=\"Arizona Adopts Election Reform Bill That Stops Some Voters From Automatically Receiving Absentee Ballots\">violate federal election laws<\/a> will be prosecuted and sentenced. They inaccurately characterize this as &ldquo;Donald Trump could not be clearer about his plans to use the Justice Department to seek revenge against his enemies.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>The opening paragraph also references Trump supporters chanting &ldquo;Lock Her Up!&rdquo; of Hillary Clinton, who had gotten away with setting up a secret server to mishandle classified information. Left unsaid by the New York Times is that Trump didn&rsquo;t go after Clinton during his time in office, saying it would be &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2016\/nov\/22\/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-investigation-jail-dropped\">divisive<\/a>&rdquo; to pursue political opponents. The New York Times also doesn&rsquo;t mention that the Democrat National Convention featured chants of &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BEaNyb4oyV8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Lock Him Up!<\/a>&rdquo; when Hillary Clinton spoke.<\/p>\n<p>Most importantly, though, the past four years saw Democrats at the local, state, and federal levels upend historic norms associated with rule of law. Here&rsquo;s just a partial list:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James ran for office in 2018 on a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/10\/01\/opinion\/appeals-court-judges-shine-light-on-tish-james-monstrously-stretched-case-against-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Soviet-style threat<\/a> of getting Trump, who she claimed had illegitimately won the 2016 election. The result was a never-before-prosecuted charge of inflated assets and an indefensible $350 million fine. After businesses began to worry that the common bookkeeping approach used by Trump officials might result in similar prosecutions for their businesses, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul reassured them this government action was &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/02\/18\/us-news\/trumps-355m-fine-wont-hurt-ny-businesses-that-follow-the-law-gov-hochul-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">an extraordinarily unusual circumstance<\/a>&rdquo; &mdash; meaning it would only be used to go after Trump.<\/li>\n<li>Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg worked with a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/04\/chuck-schumers-brother-works-for-law-firm-behind-braggs-get-trump-indictment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">slew of Biden-connected attorneys<\/a>, including Biden&rsquo;s former #3 at the DOJ, to gin up a murky 34-count indictment of Trump for non-disclosure payments, even though no actual crime was alleged and the statute of limitations for looking into the payments had expired. Judge Anthony Engoron, who heavily favored the prosecution in the case, refused to recuse from the case even though he was a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2586987\/trump-fraud-trial-judge-arthur-engoron-donated-to-democrats-for-decades\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">longtime Democrat donor<\/a> whose <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2024\/03\/30\/us-news\/dem-clients-of-daughter-of-judge-in-trump-trial-raised-90m-off-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">daughter earned massive funds<\/a> from Democrat campaigns during the trial.<\/li>\n<li>Billionaire Democrat activist Reid Hoffman secretly bankrolled a civil suit in New York related to outlandish allegations that Donald Trump slipped into a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s and sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll, then a woman in her 50s. George Conway, who had tried and failed to get hired in the Trump administration, helped coordinate the lawfare. A New York jury awarded Carroll nearly $90 million. She and MSNBC&rsquo;s Rachel Maddow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kKiqwjwJTB4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">giggled about using the funds<\/a> to go on a shopping spree.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Democrat lawfare was even more onerous at the national level:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The FBI conducted a shocking <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/02\/deja-vu-dojs-classified-documents-narrative-feels-like-a-get-trump-trick-weve-seen-before\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">armed raid of Mar-a-Lago<\/a> for an unprecedented presidential records and classified document case that has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/15\/judge-in-docs-case-throws-out-dojs-lawfare-against-trump-rules-jack-smiths-appointment-unconstitutional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">since been dismissed<\/a> on account of Special Counsel Jack Smith having been illegally appointed. Prior to that dismissal, criminal <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/12\/bidens-doj-doesnt-want-to-disclose-classified-mar-a-lago-documents-except-through-selective-leaks-to-leftist-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">selective leaks<\/a> about that raid were distributed to a compliant press.<\/li>\n<li>Smith also violated every norm and precedent with his <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/08\/03\/jack-smiths-jan-6-indictments-are-an-attack-on-political-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">anti-free speech prosecution<\/a> of Trump, related to Trump&rsquo;s concerns over 2020 election administration. Smith had the benefit of several Democrat-appointed federal judges doing everything they could to fast-track the trial, including <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/19\/how-a-left-wing-appeals-panel-is-rigging-trumps-j6-case-through-bogus-fast-track-process\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">removing normal procedures<\/a> afforded the accused.<\/li>\n<li>Democrat groups led an effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/02\/06\/meet-the-two-groups-behind-plot-to-kick-trump-off-the-ballot-and-he-isnt-the-only-target\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">remove Trump from the ballot<\/a>, supposedly in the name of protecting democracy. The move was so radical &mdash; despite media claims otherwise &mdash; that all nine justices shot it down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The list goes on and on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Biden DOJ imprisoned conservative media giant <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/01\/bannon-sentencing-proves-the-democrats-lawfare-campaign-goes-far-beyond-trump\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steve Bannon<\/a> and close Trump associate Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress. Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/12\/house-gop-votes-to-hold-merrick-garland-in-contempt-of-congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Merrick Garland<\/a> was also held in contempt of Congress but has not been even close to prosecuted, much less imprisoned.<\/li>\n<li>The DOJ targeted <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/03\/22\/house-judiciary-finds-biden-doj-had-no-legitimate-basis-to-target-parents-as-terrorists\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">school parents<\/a> who have protested the radical trans agenda at some public schools as &ldquo;terrorists,&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/24\/pro-life-dad-raided-by-bidens-fbi-is-on-trial-this-week\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">raided the homes of pro-lifers<\/a> and selectively <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/01\/30\/dad-of-11-convicted-for-praying-at-abortion-facility-alongside-5-other-pro-lifers-targeted-by-doj\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prosecuted and imprisoned<\/a> many of them as well under the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/10\/28\/the-face-act-is-unconstitutional-its-past-time-congress-got-rid-of-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unconstitutional FACE Act<\/a>. It&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-sues-alabama-violating-federal-laws-prohibition-systematic-efforts-remove\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">sued states<\/a> that work to improve their <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/03\/04\/biden-department-of-justice-declares-war-on-voter-id-and-other-election-security-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">election integrity<\/a>, including just this week suing Virginia to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/justice-department-sues-virginia-violating-federal-laws-prohibition-systematic-efforts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">force it to allow non-citizens<\/a> to remain on the voter rolls.<\/li>\n<li>Biden&rsquo;s DOJ indicted more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao-dc\/capitol-breach-cases\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1,243 of Trump&rsquo;s supporters<\/a> for a protest at the Capitol after doing nearly nothing to the tens of thousands of BLM rioters who wreaked havoc nationwide in 2020. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that a law used to target <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/andrewschulz\/status\/1844010008734044357\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">300<\/a> of these defendants &mdash; and Trump &mdash; was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/28\/supreme-court-tosses-obstruction-charges-for-j6-defendants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">improperly applied to their cases<\/a>, a slap-down that hardly slowed the DOJ down.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It almost seems like 5,000 words should have been written about how much Democrats destroyed rule of law in this country in short order. Instead, Bazelon and Schwartz say that the &ldquo;fundamental difference&rdquo; between Trump threatening to prosecute various alleged lawbreakers and Biden&rsquo;s DOJ actually prosecuting hundreds of Biden&rsquo;s political opponents is &ldquo;[t]here is no known evidence that Biden instigated these investigations or has tried to influence their outcome.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>Biden Meddles A Lot<\/h2>\n<p>Oh for crying out loud. First off, the problem with the DOJ&rsquo;s prosecutions isn&rsquo;t which members of the Democrat Party ordered or influenced them. The problem is that they are political prosecutions designed to interfere with U.S. elections. While it&rsquo;s true that Biden didn&rsquo;t take an ad out in The New York Times that said, &ldquo;Hey Garland, please prosecute my top political opponent immediately,&rdquo; he came pretty close to that on the front page of the paper itself.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments,&rdquo; the New York Times announced on its front page on April 2, 2022. &ldquo;And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6,&rdquo; the report continued in the article headlined &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/02\/us\/politics\/merrick-garland-biden-trump.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Garland Faces Growing Pressure as Jan. 6 Investigation Widens<\/a>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>See, Biden didn&rsquo;t communicate his frustration directly! He didn&rsquo;t say it in a private meeting with his attorney general or write a memo detailing his desires. He only put it on the front page of a quiet, hardly ever read Democrat Party publication called The New York Times. How would Garland ever possibly find out what Biden had two of his staffers tell The New York Times for the purpose of getting a front-page story out of it?<\/p>\n<p>By comparison, King Henry II&rsquo;s &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.historic-uk.com\/HistoryUK\/HistoryofEngland\/Thomas-Becket\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?<\/a>&rdquo; was far more subtle.<\/p>\n<p>Jonathan Lemire and Sam Stein of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/02\/09\/white-house-frustration-with-garland-grows-00140813\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Politico<\/a> laundered additional Biden leaks, including complaints about the slow pace of the prosecutions of his political opponent Trump, earlier this year in &ldquo;White House frustration with Garland grows.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Clearly the &ldquo;fundamental difference&rdquo; between Trump threatening to prosecute lawbreakers and Biden&rsquo;s DOJ prosecuting all of his political opponents is not that Biden kept his views super secret.<\/p>\n<p>Meddling with the DOJ is part of a pattern for Biden. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/05\/08\/obama-biden-oval-office-meeting-on-january-5-was-key-to-entire-anti-trump-operation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">infamous January 5, 2017,<\/a> meeting where Obama, Biden, and their advisors concocted plans for how to target Trump officials, including incoming National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, it was Biden who came up with the idea of abusing the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grassley.senate.gov\/news\/news-releases\/grassley-flynn-investigation-what-did-obama-and-biden-know-and-when-did-they-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Logan Act<\/a> to go after him, according to contemporaneous notes taken by discredited FBI special agent <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/06\/24\/biden-may-have-personally-raised-idea-to-investigate-flynn\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Peter Strzok<\/a>, of all people. The FBI did just that in the days that followed.<\/p>\n<p>And on that note, The New York Times article scandalously pretends that the FBI and DOJ are bastions of objectivity and non-partisanship, ignoring the mountains of evidence to the contrary. The Russia collusion hoax exposed for Americans just how corrupt these agencies are.<\/p>\n<p>Virtually no one was held accountable for their role in that information operation. Clinton and her fellow partisans weren&rsquo;t charged for making up the Russia collusion story. Heck, British &ldquo;spy&rdquo; Christopher Steele is still <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerryDunleavy\/status\/1843704714904645639\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spreading misinformation about Trump<\/a> this month. The media who participated in the spreading the information operation were <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/18\/fake-news-board-commonly-known-as-pulitzer-prize-defends-award-to-2018-russia-hoaxers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">rewarded with prizes<\/a>. And the government operatives who deceptively leaked in order to keep the hoax going were given lucrative taxpayer funded <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/10\/27\/garland-mccabe-settlement-517333\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">payouts<\/a>. FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, who falsified a FISA warrant in order to spy on an innocent American, was <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/08\/14\/kevin-clinesmith-corrupt-fbi-attorney-who-falsified-carter-page-fisa-warrant-expected-to-plead-guilty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">given a slap on the wrist<\/a> of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realclearinvestigations.com\/articles\/2021\/12\/16\/dc_bar_lets_convicted_fbi_russiagate_lawyer_back_in_good_standing_as_court_cuts_him_more_slack_807964.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">few months without his law license<\/a>. The DOJ Inspector General found that there had been 17 major omissions and errors in the FISA warrants used to spy on Trump campaign associate Carter Page.<\/p>\n<h2>Permanent DC Is Threatened By Trump<\/h2>\n<p>&ldquo;Maybe the most harmful thing the former president has done to the rule of law is to engage in behavior so reckless that he effectively dared his successor&rsquo;s Justice Department to investigate him,&rdquo; Bazelon and Schwartz opine, blaming Trump for being a victim of over-the-top prosecutions and investigations. They add, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s easy to see what the peril of not investigating Trump&rsquo;s most law-defying conduct might have been: For laws to have credibility, they must be applied to everyone.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Again, this is written after there was almost no accountability for the law-defying conduct of the Russia collusion hoax. But how can the Times reporters write those lines, and ignore the obvious weaknesses of all the Trump prosecutions &mdash; all of which are <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/27\/ny-judges-scrutinize-troubling-450-million-penalty-in-trump-fraud-case-no-one-lost-any-money\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">now<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/15\/judge-in-docs-case-throws-out-dojs-lawfare-against-trump-rules-jack-smiths-appointment-unconstitutional\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">falling<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/09\/13\/judge-dismisses-two-counts-against-trump-in-georgia-lawfare-case\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">apart<\/a>, incidentally &mdash; unless they&rsquo;re leftists caught in an epistemological loop where they&rsquo;ve never exposed themselves to a news source that discusses those weaknesses or they just assume all their readers are too ill-informed to know about those weaknesses?<\/p>\n<p>Nevermind, the point of the article is to introduce a New York Times-designed survey of 50 Washington denizens who all completely agree that the man who has pledged to &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.c-span.org\/video\/?c4918223\/trump-drain-swamp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">drain the swamp<\/a>&rdquo; is a threat to the very same swamp.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Forty-two of the 50 former officials said it was very likely or likely that a second Trump term would pose a significant threat to the norm of keeping criminal enforcement free of White House influence,&rdquo; the authors claim.<\/p>\n<p>Would that be the norm of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/nsba-advance-notice-doj-controversial-school-board-memo-email\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">coordinating legal operations against parents<\/a> at the behest of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dem-gov-hopefuls-side-with-union-in-fight-over-virginia-school-closures\/\" title=\"Dem Gov Hopefuls Side With Union in Fight Over Virginia School Closures\">special interest groups<\/a>? Would it be the norm of <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/january-6\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">shock-and-awe prosecutions<\/a> of one set of rioters while letting decades of left-wing rioters off easy? What about the norm of not having <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/05\/08\/obama-biden-oval-office-meeting-on-january-5-was-key-to-entire-anti-trump-operation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Barack Obama and Joe Biden help plot<\/a> aspects of the Russia collusion hoax? What about the norm of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2024\/07\/03\/garland-trump-roberts-presidential-immunity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prosecuting your top political opponent<\/a> for his speech in ways that have never even been considered before? What about Democrat prosecutors across the country going after every Republican official they can. What about the attempts to disbar all Republican attorneys to prevent effective election advocacy. What are these norms of which the Times speaks?<\/p>\n<h2>Swamp Doesn&rsquo;t Like Guy Who Promises To Drain Swamp<\/h2>\n<p>The Times says it surveyed 50 swamp denizens, half appointed by Democrats and half appointed by Republicans, and that nearly all agree that Trump is a problem. Their first example of a &ldquo;conservative&rdquo; Republican appointee who opposes Trump is Peter Keisler, who is described as &ldquo;a founder of the conservative Federalist Society&rdquo; and former Bush official.<\/p>\n<p>What Bazelon and Schwartz hide from readers, however, is that Keisler is a rabid never-Trumper and board member of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/defending-democracy-together-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Democrat-funded<\/a> anti-Trump outfit set up by Democrat activists Bill Kristol and Sarah Longwell and named, however inappropriately, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/society-for-the-rule-of-law-srl\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Society for the Rule of Law<\/a>. The group is so unhinged &mdash; if oft-quoted by Democrat media &mdash; that George Conway is its cofounder, primary spokesman, and chairman of the board. It was part of a constellation of groups that were strong proponents of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/defending-democracy-together-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">using the Justice Department to perpetuate Democrats&rsquo; Russia collusion hoax<\/a>. They&rsquo;re so conservative that their members <a href=\"https:\/\/www.salon.com\/2024\/09\/03\/a-restoration-of-the-rule-of-law-kamala-harris-freedom-campaign-is-coming-for-trumpism\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">frequently endorse Kamala Harris<\/a> and they have supported every single piece of lawfare against Trump and his supporters, no matter how extreme. For example the group filed an amicus brief in support of removing Trump from the ballot, a view so extreme that even Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson couldn&rsquo;t support it.<\/p>\n<p>The next person quoted is Michael Luttig, another rabid anti-Trump activist, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/defending-democracy-together-institute\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">another board member<\/a> of the Democrat-funded and Democrat-launched Society for the Rule of Law. Luttig was one of the so-called masterminds of the attempt to attempt to keep tens of millions of Americans from being able to vote for the candidate of their choice. He called the Colorado ruling removing Trump from the ballot, a ruling soon to be overturned by every single justice on the Supreme Court, a &ldquo;masterful judicial opinion&rdquo; and &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/grabien.com\/story.php?id=452459&amp;utm_source=cliplist&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=cliplist20231221&amp;utm_content=story452459\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">unassailable and irrefutable in every single respect<\/a>.&rdquo; <\/p>\n<p>Bazelon and Schwartz also gaslight about the first Trump term. They assert without evidence that Trump interfered directly in the Russia collusion scam that was perpetrated against him. They admit there is no evidence that Trump influenced any of the completely impotent investigations into some of the corrupt actors who participated in that horrific and damaging lie, but they are upset that he publicly complained about their corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The article also tells a fantastical tale of Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, being an innocent victim of political prosecution. In fact, McCabe benefited from a DOJ culture that would do anything to avoid prosecuting friends such as him, even as he clearly <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/01\/29\/new-book-mccabe-initiated-white-house-meeting-that-led-to-leak\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">leaked like a sieve<\/a> and rampantly lied about some of his leaking. Instead of prosecution, his buddies at DOJ helped him get a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2021\/10\/27\/garland-mccabe-settlement-517333\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">massive six-figure settlement<\/a> paid for by taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>They quote McCabe saying that investigations and indictments can ruin your reputation even if they don&rsquo;t lead to convictions. You don&rsquo;t say! Perhaps Donald Trump and his family would have something to say about the efforts to tie Trump up in legal problems, bankrupt him, distract him, ruin his reputation, and ultimately make him lose the election. McCabe, for his part, was rewarded for his role in the Russia collusion hoax and other anti-Trump efforts with a CNN contributorship, among other things. <\/p>\n<h2>Strategic Leaks To Subvert Constitution<\/h2>\n<p>The next part of the interminable article is the section dealing with how the unelected bureaucracy might be able to thwart the constitutional authority bestowed on the president, if the president is named Trump.<\/p>\n<p>The Times asked its survey respondents whether there were any &ldquo;external checks&rdquo; on Trump&rsquo;s constitutional responsibility to oversee the Department of Justice.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Much of what we know about the clashes within the Justice Department in Trump&rsquo;s first term comes from such disclosures,&rdquo; the article says, referencing the deluge of selective leaks from FBI and DOJ officials to the media as part of the Russia collusion hoax that government officials and journalists perpetrated against America.<\/p>\n<p>It then quotes Daniel Richman, a former federal prosecutor in New York, without mentioning that he was the conduit James Comey used for his deceptive leaks to gin up the Robert Mueller probe.<\/p>\n<p>When Trump was in office, the corporate media gave free rein to an entire galaxy of leakers within the bureaucracy who were trying to sabotage the agenda of the president whose agenda they were supposed to serve and advanced.<\/p>\n<p>The Times falsely characterized one of those leakers &mdash; dubbed &ldquo;Anonymous&rdquo; &mdash; as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-china-censors-cnn-live-feed-during-report-on-missing-chinese-tennis-player\/\" title=\"WATCH: China Censors CNN Live Feed During Report on Missing Chinese Tennis Player\">high-level government official<\/a>, strongly suggesting that he was a cabinet official. It turned out he was a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2020\/10\/29\/new-york-times-miles-taylor-op-ed-shows-everything-wrong-with-anonymous-sources\/\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dhss-alejandro-mayorkas-builds-escalator-for-asylum-migrants\/\" title=\"DHS&#039;s Alejandro Mayorkas Builds Escalator for Asylum Migrants\">low-level official<\/a> at the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It is understandable that the Times wouldn&rsquo;t want any accountability for the army of leakers it used to spread disinformation about Trump. But it&rsquo;s much harder to understand why any honest accounting of the facts would lead anyone to conclude that Trump is more prone to politicizing justice than the party in power that has spent years openly plotting to throw their political opponents in jail.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Mollie Ziegler Hemingway is the Editor-in-Chief of The Federalist. She is Senior Journalism Fellow at Hillsdale College and a Fox News contributor. She is the co-author of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Justice-Trial-Kavanaugh-Confirmation-Supreme\/dp\/1621579832\">Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Supreme Court<\/a><\/em>. She is the author of &#8220;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Rigged-Media-Democrats-Seized-Elections\/dp\/168451259X\/\">Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections.<\/a><\/em>&#8221; Reach her at <b><a href=\"http:\/\/thefederalist.com\/mailto:mzhemingway@thefederalist.com\">mzhemingway@thefederalist.com<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times published a 5,000-word article asserting that Donald Trump is a unique threat to democracy because a second term Trump Department of Justice could potentially prosecute members of the Democrat Party. Authors Emily Bazelon and Mattathias Schwartz make this argument not only after a first Trump term with zero political prosecutions by<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":605,"featured_media":2355019,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-48-e1728989095980.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[14806,36489,33295,33263,35073],"class_list":["post-2355018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-gaslighting","tag-journalism-ethics","tag-media-criticism","tag-new-york-times","tag-political-prosecutions"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/Screenshot-48-e1728989095980.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2355018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2355018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2355019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2355018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2355018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2355018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}