The Double Standards of the Mueller Investigation

The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers.

This column by Mr. Hanson is linked to elsewhere in the  Tunnel Wall. We feel it is a strong enough commentary on leftist journalism and leftist politics that it should stand alone. TD

Victor Davis Hanson  "The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck.

"In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump’s campaign team might have done wrong in 2016.. . . 

"If so, then the DOJ will have to look at Comey himself and DOJ officials who obstructed a federal court. On at least four occasions, they were not honest about the deeply flawed Christopher Steele dossier being the source of information used in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"Comey also has said that he predicated the nature of the Clinton email investigation on his assumptions about her chances of winning the presidency — another investigatory abuse.

"The Mueller team is reportedly still looking into the possibility of election-cycle collusion with Russia by Trump officials.

"That track will require Mueller’s DOJ counterparts to look carefully at the Clinton campaign, which paid opposition researcher Steele, a British subject, for dirt on Trump that was produced through collusion with Russian sources.

"Mueller is also said to be investigating whether Trump or his advisers broke laws concerning the release of confidential government information.

"If so, the DOJ may have to indict Comey. He confessed to passing along confidential FBI memos to a friend for the expressed purpose of leaking their contents to the press.

"High-ranking Obama administration officials may also be subject to indictments, given that they may have requested the “unmasking” of American citizens whose communications were intercepted during the surveillance of foreign parties and then leaked the names of those citizens to the press.

"Mueller’s team apparently has assumed that Michael Cohen’s status as Trump’s attorney offers no protections under normal attorney-client privilege protocols.". . . 

Politics have infected these investigations. Trump was seen as a threat to the status quo, and FBI and DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of it.The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mueller’s investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Comey, McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one.A reckoning is near.

Highlights and cropping by TD 

Donald Trump and the Star Chamber of Horrors

What's a star chamber"? . . . "it became synonymous with social and political oppression through the arbitrary use and abuse of the power it wielded."

By Michael Walsh  "Fifteen months into his administration, Donald Trump remains the object of a dedicated attempt by the Democratic Party, the media, NeverTrump Republicans, and rogue members of the deep state to take him down. From the night he was elected, lifelong members of the Permanent Bipartisan Fusion Party and the embedded bureaucracy have refused to accept the results of a national election, and have instead waged a campaign of “lawfare” against a man they consider an interloper—a situation unique in the annals of American democracy.

"From Hillary Clinton to James Comey to Robert Mueller to Stormy Daniels, to various minor federal judges, to CNN and MSNBC, the list of Trump’s enemies continues to grow.

"Their tactics are breathtakingly simple—and amazingly brazen. As the past year-plus of Robert Mueller’s tedious investigation has proven, there is no very great crime behind Trump’s very great fortune of having been elected the 45th president of the United States. The entire notion of Russian “collusion” (not in itself actionable in the first place) was cooked up in the witches’ cauldron that was Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The resulting brew was liberally dispensed to the cadres of media operatives pretending to be dispassionate reporters in order to assuage the failed candidate’s rage over losing what she thought—what she was assuredby her friends at the CIA and the FBI—was a fixed fight.

"And so the Big Lie—that Trump had collaborated with Vladimir Putin to change the course of an American election—was born." . . .

The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers.  . . . "By charging former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, Mueller emphasized that even the appearance of false testimony is felonious behavior.

"If that is so, then the DOJ will probably have to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe with perjury or related offenses. A report from the Office of the Inspector General indicates that McCabe lied at least four times to federal investigators." . . .

"Mueller has searched far and wide for wrongdoing but so far has found little. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other wrongdoing already found, but no one seems to be looking at it.

"Flynn, Cohen, and other Trump aides are considered small enough fry to go after. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, and others seem big enough fry to leave alone."

Dr. Ronny Jackson Withdraws as VA Secretary Nominee (Updated)

Legal Insurrection

Jackson described the allegations against him as “false and fabricated.”

Peter Baker

✔@peterbakernyt

White House @PressSec says Dr. Jackson remains on duty as White House physician, at least today. "Admiral Jackson is a doctor in the United States Navy assigned to the White House and is here at work today,” she says in statement.

. . . "On Wednesday, The New York Times published an article that contained a summary of allegations against Jackson from 23 former and current colleagues. What got me is that these stem back to 2006 and yet former President Barack Obama and Trump kept him as White House physician:" . . .

Trump warns Senate Democrat will 'have a big price to pay' for disclosing Ronny Jackson allegations

But the amazing thing about this smear campaign against Jackson is the ease with which unsubtantiated allegations are gaining traction.  . . . "The Democrats are using Jackson as a whipping boy because they believe he favors a form of VA privatization, as some in the administration have proposed. He will probably drop out before long, a victim of the partisan times in which we live. "

Happy Hayride

Dr. Ronny Jackson and the Curious Case of Sudden Journalism

American Spectator  "There were any number of news stories that one could have been paying attention to on April 25, 2018. The most entertaining was Kanye West’s brilliant trolling of every liberal breathing.
"French President Emmanuel Macron addressed a joint session of Congress, which must have thrilled the Democrats on Capitol Hill, as every one of them is a raging Francophile.
"The story that the mainstream media seemed most interested in, however, involved Navy Admiral Ronny Jackson, the president’s personal physician and nominee to head the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
"Few had heard of Adm. Jackson until he shared the results of President Trump’s first physical in office. Jackson didn’t just appear on the Washington scene when Trump did though, he was President Obama’s doctor for almost three and a half years.
"No one was interested in Jackson for several years, but now that Trump wants him to have higher profile job the “journalism” knives are out and wrecking him has become a media priority:" . . .

Amber Athey‏Verified account 

CNN is covering the Ronny Jackson allegations over French President Macron's live address to a joint session of Congress.. . .

. . . "The allegations are so damning and overwhelming that even a casual observer could be prompted to ask, “Why now?”"Adm. Jackson has been a high ranking Naval officer and physician for quite a number of years — surely some of this should have come to light before now. Maybe say… when he was named the personal physician to the most powerful man on Earth and given a full time office the White House."It’s understandable that the Veterans Affairs Committee would dig into Jackson’s background now. However, it is mind-boggling that the litany of grievances wouldn’t appear until they did so."Not everyone close to the situation is buying the “charges”: . . .

Former Secret Service agent Dan Bongino had this defense of Admiral Jackson. See his video at the link:

"This is a book of trips I took in the Secret Service, where I ran that show and Ronny Jackson was the doctor on that trip for the president. I didn't hear a peep from you fake, phony cowards. You sicko animals...This man was a gentlemen. This man was a patriot." —@dbongino

Warning: Reading this post is known to the State of California to cause. . .

Image by The Earl of Taint. Via American Thinker

What does warning label from California really mean?  . . . "Many consumers have seen a label that says, "This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer." Just how much danger, if any, does the product pose?

"Sheryn Daugherty was quite pleased with her new pair of hiking pants until she read the label saying they contain a chemical known to the state of California to cause cancer and birth defects.

" 'I instantly thought well, why would this even be on the market?" she said.

Daugherty bought the pants in Utah. Why would the state of California have anything to say about what material is used?

" 'One of my friends just joked and said, 'Don't wear them in California and you're good,'" Daugherty said.

"She asked why California apparently is the only state that requires this sort of warning. If a product is dangerous there it's dangerous everywhere, right?

"The warning stems from California's ballot initiative, Proposition 65, passed back in 1986. It requires anyone who manufactures or distributes a product sold in California that contains a material on a list of some 800 chemicals to include a warning label.

"We put her question to Steven Christiansen, an attorney who was practicing environmental law in California when Prop. 65 passed.

" 'They have the authority to impose a fine up to $2,500 per day for violations," he said." . . .

US judge blocks weed-killer warning label in California  . . . "Glyphosate is not restricted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and has been widely used since 1974 to kill weeds while leaving crops and other plants alive." . . .

What does California know that you don’t?  If you wanted to crusade against something without actually doing anything, just propose putting warning labels on stuff. How about one at the San Francisco city limits warning the sidewalks and alleys are known to contain hazardous medical waste? TD

California could require cancer warning labels on coffee at Starbucks, other retailers  . . . "Although the case has been percolating in the courts since 2010, it has gotten little attention." . . .

20 Ridiculously Stupid Warning Labels! Silly breeds silly and these labels are stupid because of the idiotic tort laws in this nation.