From the beginning — the immediate aftermath, as it were — of the January 6 Capitol riot, charges of law enforcement “mistreatment” of protesters began to swirl on social media and conservative political sites.
Now, according to legal experts, the FBI and the Justice Department continue to violate civil liberties and use “brutish tactics” during politically motivated and highly publicized raids and arrests, against critics of the Biden administration, as reported by Just the News.
Not at all reminiscent of brutal tactics employed by infamous regimes of the past. [sarcasm]
Moreover, as “shockingly” noted by JTN, the targets of these Gestapo-esque tactics appear to have at least one thing in common: support for former President Donald Trump. Who knew?
Alan Dershowitz, noted professor emeritus at Harvard Law School — and a Democrat, mind you — blasted the arrest tactics used against Trump supporters by Christopher Wray’s FBI and Merrick Garland’s DOJ. Dershowitz told Just The News:
Law enforcement seems to be using arrest tactics on Trump supporters that are generally reserved for violent and/or fleeing suspects. They do not seem justified in many of these cases.
Former federal prosecutor John Irving echoed Dershowitz’s legal opinion:
Any sane person should be able to see that the government has been particularly overzealous in exercising its authority in these politically-charged cases. A lack of good judgment damages the credibility of the Justice Department and people’s faith in our institutions.
Incidentally, it should be noted that Irving is the attorney for former Trump White House trade official Peter Navarro. As reported by RedState in early June, Navarro was publicly arrested by FBI agents at Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C., on misdemeanor charges that he acted in contempt of Congress by defying a subpoena from House Democrats’ Jan. 6 committee.
Irving referred to Navarro’s arrest as a perfect example, as transcribed by JTN:
Why would you put a 72-year-old man with no criminal record in leg irons in a public arrest at an airport over a misdemeanor offense, especially when he literally lives across the street from the FBI headquarters building and had been in contact with an FBI agent two days earlier to be cooperative?
This obviously is the kind of case where a defendant would be allowed to voluntarily surrender in court, rather than being the object of a public spectacle.
The tactics used against Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe provided another stark example. As reported by my colleague Jennifer Van Laar in November 2021, FBI agents raided O’Keefe’s home after Project Veritas went public with a report on FBI raids on journalists’ homes. Coincidence?
As noted by JTN, the government was investigating whether Project Veritas stole a diary belonging to then-presidential candidate Biden’s 40-year-old daughter, Ashley Biden. O’Keefe told authorities Biden left behind the diary, along with other belongings, when she moved out of a Delray Beach, Florida, house, which was subsequently occupied by a source who gave the diary to Project Veritas.
Just one problem.
Journalists are generally legally protected by the First Amendment for receiving materials from sources, regardless of how the sources obtained the materials themselves before handing them over to the media.
Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland were unavailable for comment.
Multiple other examples of similar treatment exist, including the pre-dawn raid on the Virginia home of former Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, as RedState reported in late June. But, let’s ask a larger question:
Given the left’s unbridled hatred of Donald Trump, should anyone be surprised by any of this?
Or should anyone be surprised, given Biden’s stage 4 TDS, and the “track records” of Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland and their respective departments? Consider the following RedState headlines:
Justice Department Targets Americans With New ‘Domestic Terrorism Unit’
There He Goes Again: Merrick Garland’s DOJ Blocks Republican Access to FBI’s Jan. 6 Documents
The bottom line:
More than 750 people have been imprisoned for Jan. 6-related crimes without a trial, noted JTN; the vast majority of whom were not accused of carrying a weapon, assaulting law enforcement, or destroying property. Many didn’t even enter the Capitol building.
Think that through. Does that seem right to you? In America? Regardless of a ridiculous breach of the United States Capitol Building, it wasn’t — and it still isn’t.