November 26, 2024
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It’s been quite some time since we wrote in detail about the “long, proud history of the FBI” when it comes to spying and other wrongdoing. For a refresher --- very timely as the prospect of reforming our intel agencies actually seems within grasp --- Mark Levin’s must-see Sunday monologue runs through the highlights of our government’s repeated Constitution-trampling.
To those political enemies who would criticize President-elect Trump and anticipate him abusing his power, Levin points out that he was one of the most well-behaved and that real presidential misconduct started very early in our nation’s history, with second President John Adams, a brilliant but flawed human being. It was soon after our nation was formed, in 1798, that Adams signed the now-infamous Sedition Act, which effectively criminalized criticism of, well, John Adams. This was tough stuff: “If any person shall write, print, utter or publish, or procure...or knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous, and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States...with intent to defame the said government...shall be punished by fine not exceeding $2,000 and by imprisonment not exceeding 2 years.” Conspirators in such activity could be imprisoned by up to five years!
Americans could even be prosecuted under the Sedition Act for criticizing the Sedition Act.
Adams’ political enemy, Thomas Jefferson (who could legally be criticized all the live-long day) was OF COURSE opposed to this law, and once he was President allowed it to lapse. But before that, 17 indictments and 10 convictions went through, “many upon charges so flimsy as to be comical,” according to Peter McNamara of the Free Speech Center. So the beginning of our great nation was tainted by this affront to free political speech. Just ten years after the Constitution was ratified, we were already violating it to the extreme.
Then there was Abraham Lincoln, who in 1861 suspended habeas corpus from Washington DC to Philadelphia, meaning he could jail people without charging them with a crime. In 1862, in defiance of a federal appellate court ruling, he expanded this to cover the entire nation. Under the authority of the military, thousands of Americans, including political opponents, were imprisoned. Over 300 opposition newspapers were closed. Yes, it was wartime, but this was still unconstitutional political warfare.
In 1917 and 1918, respectively, Democrat Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act and Sedition Act, which, according to Levin, “would come to be known as the most egregious assaults on free speech in our history.” Thousands were prosecuted under these laws, most notably Wilson’s own political opponent Eugene Debs, whose sentence was later commuted by Wilson’s successor, Republican Warren G. Harding.
Wilson implemented the most extensive censorship regime of any President, according to Levin. And the Espionage Act of 1917 lives on. We would add that “Special Counsel” Jack Smith used it to charge President Trump with “willful retention of sensitive national defense information.”
Then there’s the IRS. Documents prove that Franklin Roosevelt and his administration used it to destroy the careers of their political enemies, such as former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, a Republican whom they knew was innocent. FDR’s IRS also targeted newspaper publishers, among them William Randolph Hearst and Frank Gannett, who expressed opposition to the New Deal. This is just scratching the surface.
JFK’s IRS provided him with the supposedly private tax information on individuals, businesses and groups. Conservative groups were audited under “the Ideological Organizations Audit Program” (so, Lois Lerner wasn’t the first to do this). JFK used the FBI to spy on Martin Luther King, Jr., tapping his phones, bugging his house and monitoring his every move. Lyndon Johnson went further, using the FBI, IRS and CIA to spy on opponent Barry Goldwater, wiretapping his campaign headquarters.
According to Levin, they found out that one of Barry Goldwater’s staffers was gay, which Goldwater had known, and were threatening to use that. Goldwater called a senior member of LBJ’s campaign and said, “Please do not ruin this man’s life.” Ultimately, they chose not to.
Being paranoid about Robert Kennedy, LBJ sent FBI spies to the 1964 Democratic Convention, where they also continued monitoring Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders. In ‘68, when Hubert Humphrey was nominated, LBJ had the FBI tap his phones as well, to check his loyalty about the Vietnam War. Again, this is just the tip of the iceberg, or spies-berg.
Levin skips over the Nixon administration, perhaps because their most famous spying is so well-known (but note how Democrats at the time pretended to be shocked by it.) He fast-forwards to President Obama and his AG Eric Holder, of whom even CNN’s Jake Tapper said, “The Obama administration has used the Espionage Act to go after whistleblowers who leaked to journalists...more than all previous administrations combined…” That would be seven times.
Recall that in 2013, the “Justice” Department seized, with no notice or justification, phone records for 20 telephone lines to AP offices and journalists’ home lines, affecting more than 100 journalists. Just a week later, the DOJ named FOX NEWS journalist James Rosen a criminal co-conspirator in a leak case, tracking his movements, seizing his email logs and even spying on his parents. Obama’s spying gets much, much worse; check out this story from 2016…
As for Obama-Biden and the Deep State’s actions against Trump, you know all about those horrendous abuses of power: the unrelenting lawfare against Trump and his associates; the spying on his campaign and White House; massive leaking (including Trump’s tax returns); the Russia Hoax; two sham impeachments; the raid on his home; and the agencies’ role in January 6 and the spying, tracking, raiding, arrests and convictions that followed. Not to mention the government’s online censorship activities.
So the good ol’ USA has a long history of abuse of power by its leaders. But not by Trump --- he was the victim of it. How ironic that the very one who’s actually trying to change this, to make this country the kind of open, honest place we’d like to think it is, is the one being hounded and feared and called a dictator. They accuse him of “destroying norms,” but if the norm he plans to destroy is government spying on American citizens and abusing its power for political reasons, then bring on the wrecking ball.
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6365141316112
Speaking of January 6 abuses, BLAZE MEDIA has an update on their journalist Steve Baker, who recently chose to plead guilty to four misdemeanor charges (such as “milling” and “parading”) rather than endure a trial. As it happens, his pre-trial hearing was the day after the election, and he says the judge “really showed his intolerance.”
This judge, no doubt ticked off at the election outcome, wouldn’t even allow discovery. “He showed that he was going to be completely inflexible in the trial.” Baker says. “He dismissed all our motions...and the most important motion that we had is, we were requesting from the government discovery on the other 80 to 100 journalists that went through the building and weren’t charged with anything.” According to Baker, his judge is “best friends with Merrick Garland.”
This, combined with the prospect of a Washington DC jury pool, is what led him to change his plea to guilty.
After that, Baker says, the judge “made a serious unforced error” in chastising him. “He criticized none of the [alleged] behavior...but what he did criticize me [for]...[was] my remarks in my journalism about weaponized Department of Justice and the bias of the court.”
So, not his actions, but his words, critical of the government. (Ah, we come full circle to John Adams’ Sedition Act.) Steve Baker needs to be at the top of the list of those J6 political prisoners Trump pardons immediately after his inauguration. Watch this five-minute clip of his interview with Pat Gray here, highly recommended, in which he says the government is still at this, as it just SWAT-teamed and arrested an Austin man (a cancer patient) who had nonviolently entered the Capitol that day. This was done last week, AFTER the election.
https://www.theblaze.com/shows/pat-gray-unleashed/steve-baker-felon
When you have time, here’s investigative reporter Julie Kelly interviewing 22-year Marine Corps. Veteran, Purple Heart recipient and J6 political prisoner Christopher Kuehne.
Tristan Justice at THE FEDERALIST has an exclusive report on the evidence that shows the Pentagon deliberately delayed the deployment of the National Guard on January 6. Recall our recent story about the Inspector General “knowingly concealing” the extent of the delay and Rep. Barry Loudermilk’s letter to IG Robert P. Storch about this, insisting he correct his report.
Kash Patel, who was then chief of staff for the Defense Department, is quoted here from a FEDERALIST story back in March, insisting that President Trump authorized those 10,000 National Guard. It’s now crystal clear that Trump did just that and has told the truth about it all along.
Speaking of Kash Patel, he appeared Sunday on FOX NEWS with Maria Bartiromo to explain how he as FBI Director would restore public trust in the Bureau. Exposure of the corruption is a must, he said. “Put out the documents. Put out the evidence. We only have gotten halfway down the Russiagate hole.”
In other words, it’s far worse than we know after almost four years. Watch Patel’s interview at THE GATEWAY PUNDIT, which also features a rundown of the transgressions (that we know of) by current FBI Director Chris Wray.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/kash-patel-displays-why-he-is-best-pick/
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