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Opinion

Deep State plays victim after FBI’s raid of Trump Mar-a-Lago estate

Ben Weingarten Federalist Senior Contributor; Claremont Institute Fellow
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The Justice Department’s probe of former President Donald Trump is not the first time an ex-president has been investigated. The DOJ’s inquiry into the possession of classified documents is now on hold after a judge granted Trump’s request to appoint a special master to oversee the records. Straight Arrow News contributor Ben Weingarten warns that the Deep State has already begun to play the victim after the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago. He says the DOJ will try and protect its politically-motivated actions by going after its critics.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose meek demeanor has served as a useful facade for his department’s malevolence in pursuing political foes – and who now appears to be threatening the whistleblowers who have exposed it – was indignant as he addressed the half the country that believes a rubicon has been crossed thanks to his raid.

Rather than address the criticism over the unprecedented act—one that could’ve only been justified were it totally bulletproof, since we’re talking about the raid of the home of the former president, spurred by a document dispute with an angry anti-Trump archivist—an act enabling a pre-textual fishing expedition, which was arguably lawless, for which the Department originally refused to show us the underlying affidavit, then released a heavily redacted one, while heavily redacting the document explaining why it had to do all the redactions—well, Garland targeted the critics by casting them, not the DOJ/FBI, as the aggressors.

FBI Director Christopher Wray echoed these remarks in a statement, writing: “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans.”

Message delivered.

Don’t mind the contrast in Hillary emails and Biden laptop versus Trump-Russia; or the railroading of January 6-ers versus the kid glove treatment for BLM rioters; never mind authorities’ alleged concocting and entrapment in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case; or the tagging of parents critical of school boards as terrorists, or associating dissent over COVID lockdowns or skepticism over election integrity with domestic terror threats–while whistleblowers say the FBI is inflating those threats. Nevermind the shackling of a former presidential trade adviser, or the seizing of a congressman’s cell phone, or the siccing of the FBI by one administration on its predecessor and likely next chief opponent.

Now, the institutions—the DOJ and FBI—weren’t the aggressors. They were the victims. And they’re singularly focused on defending their aggrieved institutions, not the Constitution.

The Deep State, with the help of its corporate media friends, wants you to know that its corruption, intimidation, and weaponization on behalf of our Ruling Class aren’t a danger to America.

But you might be, if you dare to point out its misconduct. The administration made this clear from its telling first statements as the furor over the Mar-a-Lago maneuver mushroomed.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, whose meek demeanor has served as a useful facade for his department’s malevolence in pursuing political foes – and who now appears to be threatening the whistleblowers who have exposed it – was indignant as he addressed the half the country that believes a rubicon has been crossed thanks to his raid.

Rather than address the criticism over the unprecedented act—one that could’ve only been justified were it totally bulletproof, since we’re talking about the raid of the home of the former president, spurred by a document dispute with an angry anti-Trump archivist—an act enabling a pre-textual fishing expedition, which was arguably lawless, for which the Department originally refused to show us the underlying affidavit, then released a heavily redacted one, while heavily redacting the document explaining why it had to do all the redactions—well, Garland targeted the critics by casting them, not the DOJ/FBI, as the aggressors.

FBI Director Christopher Wray echoed these remarks in a statement, writing:

 “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans.”

Message delivered: Don’t mind the contrast in Hillary-Emails and Biden-Laptop versus Trump-Russia; or the railroading of January 6ers versus the kid glove treatment for BLM rioters; never mind authorities’ alleged concocting and entrapment in the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping case; or the tagging of parents critical of school boards as terrorists, or associating dissent over COVID lockdowns or skepticism over election integrity with domestic terror threats—while whistleblowers say the FBI is inflating those threats; never mind the shackling of a former presidential trade adviser, or the seizing of a congressman’s cell phone, or the siccing of the FBI by one administration on its predecessor and likely next chief opponent.

Now, the institutions—the DOJ and FBI—weren’t the aggressors. They were the victims. And they’re singularly focused on defending their aggrieved institutions. Not the Constitution.

The president is playing his part, of course here. As is the media, fueling the narrative that the true story of Mar-a-Lago is about dangerous white nationalist conservatives pouncing.

All conservatives of course, condemn threats against law enforcement.

But we also condemn corruption in law enforcement because of how crippling it is to our republic order. There is little more dangerous than the FBI and DOJ—the most powerful law enforcement bodies—using and abusing their awesome powers to target and inflict pain upon political foes—and crying victim to distract from it.

These points will be ignored.

As will the administration’s seeming disingenuousness. What are we to make of the fact it’s suddenly concerned with threats to authorities when, again, it wouldn’t aggressively pursue those who firebombed cop cars and attacked police precincts and courts during the anti-authority assault of the summer of 2020; declined to prosecute those breaking federal law by menacingly protesting in front of the homes of Supreme Court justices; and remember, this administration has done nothing to combat the progressive-led anti-cop, empty-the-jails agenda that’s led to a spike in violent crime against Americans of all stripes, including police. And of course by the way, it won’t talk about its own meddling prior to the 2020 election which we find more and more details that are outrageous.

While claiming criticism of it is illegitimate and dangerous, crying victim, as a shield, the praetorian guard will harness that purported danger as a sword to be wielded against critics–aiming to drive home the idea that MAGA equals mujahadeen, or Nazism.

Critiques of the Deep State, and efforts to defund, reorganize, or abolish parts of it will be linked to violent assaults.

That’s the Deep State’s best defense of its actions—not to defend them, but to put critics on the defensive.

Worse than that, as we’ve covered before, the Biden Administration’s national strategy for countering domestic terrorism mandates pursuing the critics. 

It says that those domestic violent extremists posing the greatest threat to the homeland include those who are “anti-government” or “anti-authority” – which those critical of vital institutions that we feel have been totally corrupted, to their detriment and ours and to the detriment of law and order itself, are being cast as.

With the issuance of a purported joint  (DHS)/FBI intelligence briefconsistent with other reporting on threat bulletins circulating among federal authorities, the efforts to portray critics as dangers is already well underway. Two months out from an election, only further underscoring how dangerous and political, this all is.

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