At hearing, Kash Patel vows to stop political prosecutions/persecutions if he become FBI head
Having been the victim of government overreach and a weaponized system of justice and law enforcement, I know what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States Government barreling down on you, and as the Biden inspector general determined, those activities by the FBI and DOJ were wholly improper and not predicated upon law and facts. …
I will ensure, if confirmed, that no American is subjected to that kind of torment, to that kind of cost, financially and personally, and most importantly, I will make sure that no American is subjected to death threats like I was, and subjected to moving the residences like I was because of government overreach, because of leaks of information about my personal status.
The FBI and DOJ should never be the conduits for political prosecutions. But of course they were, by the left charging the right in recent years. And although what happened recently was not the only time it’s happened, it represented an enormous increase in the scope of such persecutions and their targets on the right. Patel is determined to stop it and I applaud him.
Of course, at least a third of America and up to half of America probably thinks such prosecutions/persecutions were fully justified. And still another half probably thinks it’s time to turn the tables. The problem is figuring out how to make sure there are negative consequences for those people who did the persecuting while at the same time refraining from purely political prosecutions of the left by the right. Some on the right would say it’s payback time, but it doesn’t seem like Patel is saying that.
Here’s Megyn Kelly on the subject:
The lawfare in general was the biggest turning point.
The lawfare was a catastrophic mistake by the Democrats. Trying to criminalize a political battle, trying to go after one’s political opponent with criminal charges. And on top of that, civil cases that could ruin a man trying to put him in jail was a bridge too far.
The electorate rejected it out of hand as too much.
It made the Democrats look radical. It made the Democrats look like they were the ones who were anti-democratic. It undermined their core argument against Trump On January 6th. They shot themselves in the foot.
It was a before and after moment that we now cannot get back. Now we’ve crossed the Rubicon and anything’s possible. If Adam Schiff or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden winds up facing criminal charges under a Trump administration, I can tell you there are very few Republican voters who will feel sorry for them.
They brought it upon themselves. We had never done this before.
I wouldn’t feel sorry for them. But I don’t recommend prosecuting them unless the charges are completely egregious and their guilt completely clear. Otherwise, it’s enough to investigate and publicize the wrongdoing. Many many people – most people? – on the right will disagree with me. But I happen to think that prosecuting political opponents is a minefield, and if you’re going to stand against doing it you have to be willing to let some offenses go. It’s a difficult decision, but I think it’s necessary, and it sounds to me as though Patel would agree with me, although I’m not sure.
Lawfare & “government overreach” are integral parts of the Rule of Law, and no one is ever going to be able to stop it from happening…stop it permanently anyway.
He is probably talking about the Federal levels of lawfare & “government overreach” – but that is just the tip of the iceberg…
Trump, the despiser of DIVERSITY(TM)!
Democrats, the lovers of DIVERSITY(TM)…when it suits ‘em…
Heads on pikes sounds like a good compromise to me.
I know charges of hypocrisy don’t stick to Democrats, but during Trump’s impeachment over the Ukrainian phone call the Democrats claimed that even *investigating* the front runner of the opposition party — even if the charges were true — was unconstitutional election interference for which Trump should be removed from office. And Biden hadn’t even been formally nominated at the time the phone call occurred — he was just the front runner.
As much as I don’t want to get into escalating tit-for-tat investigations, something has to be done to dissuade the Democrats of this form of persecution. We can’t go on with the double standards as lopsided as they are and still have a republic. How to square that circle I don’t know, but something must be done.
I think a portion of the residue of swing voters were disgusted by the lawfare and it was a motivator for the Republican electorate. Democratic voters are perfectly comfortable with that. It’s a perfectly sociopathic political tendency. The minority who were not have left the Democratic Party.
“. . . I happen to think that prosecuting political opponents is a minefield, . . . [Neo]
I agree, and yet if there are no repurcussions for such behavior there is no disincentive to stop it. I do not think it unreasonable to hold primary players responsible. It seems that Milley might prove to be such an example.
Patel addressed the tit-for-tat issue under questioning from Sen. John Kennedy (LA):
https://x.com/townhallcom/status/1885016912305832068?mx=2
At the 5:30 mark. But watch the whole thing.
I do not think it unreasonable to hold primary players responsible. It seems that Milley might prove to be such an example.
–T
Quite so.
Examples must be made, but not the pedal-to-the-metal efforts Dems made to personally humiliate, ruin and imprison the objects of their ire.
If Trump had had all his wealth stripped away and been frogmarched into prison for life, that would have been just fine for Democrats.
It’s a testament to the American system and the American people that that didn’t happen.
“It’s a testament to the American system and the American people that that didn’t happen.” [huxley @7:45]
And also a testament to the power of information sharing. Greg Lukianoff briefly discusses the importance of the rise of universally available knowledge and its political implications in the following essay (H/T Instapundit):
The velocity of the conversation — now exponentially increased from the printing press to internet. And as always such sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Link: https://eternallyradicalidea.com/p/institutional-decay-henry-viiis-big
I think a type of Truth and Reconciliation process is what is called for, especially with regard to J6 and covid, where pardons make prosecution unlikely. With perjury being the only strongly prosecuted crime, everyone will be encouraged to cooperate with subpoenas. Public awareness and shaming are likely to be a way of holding people accountable without tit for tat prosecutions
“I happen to think that prosecuting political opponents is a minefield, and if you’re going to stand against doing it you have to be willing to let some offenses go.”
But here’s the thing: now that the precedent has been set, the Democrats are going to do it as long as they think they can get away with it.
Remember, to a leftist, it’s never the policy that’s wrong, only the implementation. It wasn’t that the went after Trump, it’s that they didn’t do it fast enough, or hard enough, or in the right venues. They’ll do it again. And again. And again.
Because they know that the right won’t retaliate in kind. We’re “above” all that right? We’re better than that right? We can just point at them and say “shame on you” and all will be well right?
Except the left will elect the most egregiously unfit and or corrupt individuals in the world without a second thought. Publicizing their behavior isn’t going to stop them…that’s the same as no consequences at all. They got away with it…so they’ll do it again.
Next time they may be successful and get a court to put their opponent in jail and maybe even get them disqualified from the ballot. Then they win by default and can change the rules to make it even easier for them to do it in the future.
Letting them get away with blatantly attempting to undermine our Republic in this way is a recipe for disaster, in my humble opinion.
We need to hold our noses and play by the same (dirty) rules that they play by. The only way to keep them from engaging in dirty tricks is to ensure they fear the consequences.
If we let them get away with it scot-free – they won’t fear the consequences. And the next time, they may be better at it.
What Sandra said at 5:30 above about a Truth and Reconciliation process sounds like a way to thread the needle. I am not convinced that J6 and Covid should be the targets. I would prefer to focus on abuse of law enforcement and intelligence agencies against political opponents. This I consider to have been the most pernicious part of the law fare against Republicans and against Trump. Those two issues are huge and would likely take up most of the next two years, beyond which a Republican majority in Congress in not a certainty.
He’s Indian though so says whatever he needs to say to get in. There is no way of knowing what he will actually do, except for hiring nearly only Indians.
joe hiden:
Go troll somewhere else.
The operators who screwed the pooch expected to get promoted and finish out their careers with a fat government pension.
Getting investigated as a crook for all to see and losing that future is a big hit which doesn’t require conviction of a crime.
And might well serve as a deterrent.
More to the point is making it exceedingly clear the breadth and sustained nature of the malpracticing. No longer a conspiracy theory. The defenders would have to say, “Yeah, but the righties deserved it. No other way to protect democracy.”, which is a switch from, “It never happened.”