XPost: alt.politics.media, talk.politics.misc, alt.politics.republicans   
   XPost: alt.survival   
   From: lead_poisoning@nytimes.com   
      
   In article    
    wrote:   
   >   
   > Bad move FBI.  Really bad move.   
   >   
      
   A few weeks ago, liberals in the media and politics were loudly   
   complaining that the Justice Department was being way too   
   passive in its investigation of Donald Trump.   
      
   Why can’t Merrick Garland be more aggressive, they demanded, and   
   put the former president behind bars? In doing so, they echoed   
   the tactics they vehemently decried when Trump was president and   
   openly pressured two attorneys general to go after his political   
   enemies.   
      
   Well, that has changed.   
      
   Now the liberals are thrilled that a team of FBI agents raided   
   Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. And it is conservatives in the media   
   and politics who are outraged that, in a move undoubtedly   
   approved by Garland, the bureau took this unprecedented step   
   against a former president.   
      
   But keep in mind that the FBI had to get a judge to approve a   
   search warrant with a detailed list of what is being sought and   
   why it is justified by the probe. We haven’t seen that yet, but   
   that is how the criminal justice system works.   
      
   Still, I think this was a major misstep by Garland, but not for   
   the reason you might think. More on that in a moment.   
      
   When the story broke on Tuesday night, Donald Trump was the sole   
   source of information. Justice doesn’t disclose how it conducts   
   criminal probes that are supposed to be secret, although   
   department officials knew this would be the mother of all   
   bombshells and will have to address it.   
      
   When Trump defenders say such a raid has never been aimed at a   
   former president, look at the flip side. No former president has   
   played at least some role in a riot rooted in the notion – which   
   Trump continues to proclaim to this day – that the election was   
   "stolen" from him, despite a lack of evidence in all those   
   lawsuits and a probe by his own DOJ, led by Bill Barr, which led   
   to the AG’s departure.   
      
   The major papers quoted a couple of lines from Trump’s Truth   
   Social statement, such as "after working and cooperating with   
   the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my   
   home was not necessary or appropriate," and that "Such an   
   assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries."   
      
   But they chose not to mention his more inflammatory attacks,   
   which are worth examining.   
      
   "It is Prosecutorial Misconduct, the Weaponization of the   
   Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who   
   desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024."   
      
   First, rather than a case of prosecutorial misconduct, it was a   
   lawful search warrant approved by a judge, which Trump never   
   gets around to mentioning. Second, the now-demonized FBI happens   
   to be run by Trump’s own appointee, Chris Wray.   
      
   "They even broke into my safe!... What is the difference between   
   this and Watergate…"   
      
   Okay, Watergate was carried out against DNC headquarters in a   
   Washington hotel by Cuban burglars who turned out to have been   
   hired by Richard Nixon’s reelection committee. This was a duly   
   authorized raid by government agents.   
      
   There has been a strange role reversal between the parties. For   
   decades, the Republicans were the law-and-order party, backing   
   cops, prosecutors, sheriffs and G-men, while the Democrats,   
   fairly or unfairly, were painted as soft on crime. Now you have   
   top Republicans ripping federal law enforcement, with Marjorie   
   Taylor Greene calling to "defund the FBI."   
      
   And here comes the hypocrisy watch: Everyone would change their   
   positions in a heartbeat if this had been a raid on, say, Barack   
   Obama’s home, with Democrats denouncing an out-of-control FBI   
   and Republicans saying justice was finally being done. In fact,   
   we saw this during the FBI probe of Hillary Clinton’s private   
   email server, when Democrats attacked Jim Comey and the GOP went   
   ballistic about her actions.   
      
   But Trump, while providing no evidence that "Radical Left   
   Democrats" have taken over Justice, and Biden has doggedly taken   
   a hands-off approach – has a point in bringing up Hillary. For   
   we know from Trump’s account, and the media quoting DOJ   
   "sources," that the bureau ended up seizing multiple boxes and   
   documents.   
      
      
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