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Opinion

Sussmann, Navarro fates reveal American justice system in crisis

Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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On May 31, former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann was acquitted of lying to the FBI in John Durham’s Russia probe. A few days later, former White House advisor to President Trump, Peter Navarro, was indicted by a federal jury on two counts of contempt of Congress, stemming from his failure to comply with a subpoena related to the Jan. 6 Capitol breach. In the wake of these verdicts, Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten argues a flawed and two-tiered American legal system is in crisis:

Americans witnessed an unbelievable split-screen in recent days. On the one side, we had a triumphant and smug Clinton 2016 campaign lawyer, Michael Sussmann, walking free from DC federal court, in spite of what were clearly lies to the FBI. On the other was a harried and bewildered former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro being hauled before that same court, following what he says was a harrowing arrest at the hands of the FBI. Now, Navarro might be gagged for his troubles after already being shackled.

These dueling images should be ingrained in the American mind. They send an unmistakable message, which is precisely the point. We can get you anytime, anywhere on any grounds we choose. You can’t touch even a single one of ours. If by some strange reason one of ours is brought before a judge, well, both he or she and the jury will be rigged against you. “I dare you to ask me to recuse with an acquaintance on the stand,” the judge will say. “What’s a lie to the FBI among friends,” the jury will say, especially when the lie is useful to their shared ends like taking down a president.

The institutions one of ours colluded with, well, they’ll pay no price. The supposedly adversarial prosecutor who’s supposed to be representing we that people will frame them as hapless dupes, not co-conspirators; that prosecutor will be slow moving. They’ll stick to slapping big players with process crimes like perjury, and to do so all while the statutes of limitations for the most serious crimes committed by the biggest fish expire. You won’t be able to tell whether he’s building a masterful case to take everyone down, or creating a smokescreen to protect the same institutions, namely the Department of Justice, he served for years. The same DOJ to which he answers today and under a President who was Vice President when the wrongdoing occurred. Again, that’s all the point. Real conspiracies to concoct fake conspiracies aimed at destroying your singular representative like a Donald Trump, against us, won’t be fully revealed, let alone prosecuted, And you’ll be made to accept it, hanging on every un-redacted morsel, document and revelation yet waiting in vain for justice. 

Americans witnessed an unbelievable split screen in recent days. On the one side, we had a triumphant and smug Clinton 2016 campaign lawyer, Michael Sussmann, walking free from DC federal court, in spite of what were clearly lies to the FBI. On the other was a harried and bewildered former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro being hauled before that same court, following what he says was a harrowing arrest at the hands of the FBI. Now, Navarro might be gagged for his troubles after already being shackled. These dueling images should be ingrained in the American mind. They send an unmistakable message, which is precisely the point. We can get you anytime, anywhere on any grounds we choose. You can’t touch even a single one of ours. If by some strange reason one of ours is brought before a out judge, well, both he or she and the jury will be rigged against you. I dare you to ask me to recuse with an acquaintance on the stand. The judge will say what’s a lot or FBI among friends the jury will say, especially when the lie is useful to their shared ends like taking down a president. The institution’s one of ours colluded with well, they’ll pay no price, the supposedly adversarial prosecutor who’s supposed to be representing we that people will frame them as hapless dupes not co conspirators, that prosecutor will be slow moving to stick to slapping big players with process crimes like perjury, and to do so all while the statutes of limitations for the most serious crimes committed by the biggest fish expire, you won’t be able to tell whether he’s building a masterful case to take everyone down, or creating a smokescreen to protect the same institutions, namely the Department of Justice. He served for years, the same DOJ to which he answers today and under a president who was vice president when the wrongdoing occurred. Again, that’s all the point. Real conspiracies to concoct fake conspiracies and that destroying your single representative like a Donald Trump against the US won’t be fully revealed, let alone prosecuted, and you’ll be made to accept it hanging on every unredacted more so document and revelation yet waiting in vain for justice. On the other hand, if anyone that could even be remotely affiliated with you ever lashes out in any way, like over an election, which rules were changed on the fly and not by your representatives, and election in which those altered rules created an unprecedented opportunity for fraud, as Democrats used to admit about mass mail in voting that could never be audited because of its remote nature and election that the most powerful institutions in the country work together by their own admission to fortify on behalf of their men and election in which not a court in the land would hear the raft of cases on the merits. Well, their acts will be cast as insurrectionary. If you raise these points, of course, you might be cast as a potential terrorist and a minimum censored. Nevermind, of course, your universal condemnation of the worst acts among a small percentage of the 10s of 1000s of peaceful, which we use to smear your entire movement. Nevermind that our narrative is fraudulent, that the only fatalities were among the insurrectionists will lie about that point, at least until after impeaching your guy, and we’ll protect those who shot and killed. Nevermind that we won’t release the 1000s of hours of footage of what transpired that we want to tell you what our assets were doing on the ground that we want to actually charge anyone with an insurrection? Well, we equate them almost universally unarmed people with 911 hijackers, kamikaze pilots and Confederates will hold some of the insurrectionists even those facing trumped up trespassing charges in jail for months on end and make their lives a living hell will argue to like minded judges that the defendants political wrong thing makes them a danger to society

So they must be kept in jail, where they’ll rot as they wait again for months and months for a trial will argue for giving the accused terrorism enhancements in their sentences. Some will be pushed to suicide. When our allies burned down cities will release them in mass and if absolutely unavoidable ensure their sentences are minimized, you won’t mind will smear your entire political movement as terroristic in the court of Congress, when we can’t do it in the court of law will subject your most Dogged representatives, their colleagues and allies down to the most remotely related activists to limit with arguably lawless congressional probes consisting entirely of people like us, kind of like the jury of the people we refer to our Justice Department will be up in front of the probes won’t only be of questionable constitutionality, they’ll break our own rules, they will abuse targets with the most awesome and chilling powers you’ve ever seen. They’ll break and bankrupt those being scrutinized, the process at minimum will be the punishment. If they won’t participate in their own self immolation. We’ll stick our friends in law enforcement on them to hold them criminally liable, will wreck executive privilege and destroy a whole host of norms while claiming we’re defending them. Do you think your guys want ours to account if the shoe is on the other foot? And then for the cherry on top works in today’s society wide war on wrong thing and it’s smearing and toxifying anyone who dares hold your views, censoring them excommunicating them from public life and threatening to treat them as terrorists to will begin the work of erecting a social credit system with American characteristics where every wrong thought and act cannon won’t be used against you. If you question our authority or legitimacy. Well, we have a domestic counterterrorism plan for that. This is our democracy, you see, and in our democracy in the kind of cold Civil War, we’re beginning to wage, we win and you lose the question. Americans who reject our elites his agenda have to ask is, what do we do when our every institution has been weaponized against us? What do we do when there’s a two tier no justice system? What do we do when the very foundations of the system we thought we had have collapsed? These are the questions those who want our vote must answer, if they cannot, or will not if they refuse to recognize the magnitude and gravity of the rampant and justices we are facing, then they are simply unfit to lead and we will perish in all but name

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