Wednesday, March 31, 2021

US Attorneys in D.C. Becoming an Embarassment

Julie Kelly--and others--have noticed.

...Politico reporters just dropped the bad news that most protestors won’t face jail time. 

“Although prosecutors have loaded up their charging documents with language about the existential threat of the insurrection to the republic, the actions of many of the individual rioters often boiled down to trespassing,” Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney admitted in an article published Tuesday, an observation American Greatness has been pointing out for weeks. “Justice Department prosecutors sent expectations sky-high in early statements and court filings, describing elaborate plots to murder lawmakers—descriptions prosecutors have tempered as new details emerged.”

The government also will have to contend with the long-term legal consequences of continuing to pursue obstruction charges that will criminalize future political dissent. As I explained in this column, the vague charge, initially aimed at white-collar criminals not political protesters, has been applied to more than 130 defendants so far. 

But any conviction would codify its use against anyone who disrupts a government meeting or ceremony. “While violent assaults in the Capitol are rare, protests and acts of civil disobedience—such as disrupting congressional hearings or even House and Senate floor sessions, are more common,” Politico admitted. “That means prosecutors and judges will have to weigh how much more punishment a Trump supporter who invaded the Capitol during the Electoral College count deserves than, say, an anti-war protester chanting at a CIA confirmation hearing or a gun-control advocate shouting in the middle of the State of the Union address.”

No kidding....

That "obstruction" construction is not too far removed from the fanciful (and utterly ridiculous) construction that John Chisholm tried to ram through SEVEN courts against Walker allies.  Different law, but same prosecutorial intent:  screw anyone and everyone Democrat/Lefty Totalitarians don't like.

That's not a good idea at all.  Tends to catalyze resistance, some of which will not be 'peaceful.'

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