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.