Felon-in-Chief

 

For more than two years, we have discussed whether or not Donald Trump is fit to be President. Little attention has been paid to the same question regarding Hillary Clinton. (No, this is not another defense of Trump’s election.)

Clinton’s preferred policies, methods, and plans for power are beside the point. My concern is more fundamental. Democrats ran an unprosecuted felon for the highest office in the land — and that proposal went unchallenged.

The FBI publicly laid out the case against Hillary Clinton — felonious mismanagement of state secrets — and then usurped the authority of the Department of Justice to decline the “option” of prosecution. No insider knowledge is necessary to recognize her guilt. The details of her crime were public, as was the destruction of evidence.

A felon could have been President of the United States.

It’s bad enough that Democrats have established a habit of disputing electoral results. Let alone attempts to stall or undo their opponent’s presidency since his election.

They have also established, with consent from Republican leadership, that a presidential candidate may not be prosecuted and that this refusal to prosecute means crimes — even rising to treason — do not make a person ineligible for political office.

Has that ship sailed? Will the precedent influence similar decisions in the future? If the powers that be elevated another ineligible candidate to office, would we accept it with the same grumbling meekness with which we accepted Obamacare and other frauds?

Where does this rank among your concerns?

Published in Law
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  1. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Aaron Miller: Where does this rank among your concerns?

    Very high – right up there with McCabe’s recent revelation.

    It’s bad enough when people who break the law get away with it.  But when their crimes are widely known to the public and there are no investigations or trials, it sends a clear message to those on the left, “You will get away with it.”

    • #31
  2. I Walton Member
    I Walton
    @IWalton

    Good post.  Good question.   We stumbled into a presidency that could be a correction, (that could point to a correction, perhaps),  to the drift that will destroy the country.   But then we elected Democrats to the house so I’m not too optimistic.

    • #32
  3. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    The fact that she lost the election to Trump should not have given her a pass. Prosecuting her would have been proof, not that we are a third world nation, but that no one is above the law.

    I so agree!

    • #33
  4. Joshua Bissey Inactive
    Joshua Bissey
    @TheSockMonkey

    Aaron Miller (View Comment):
    Clinton didn’t just fail to report something on her taxes or leak minor information to the press. She deliberately, habitually, and by extraordinary measures endangered classified information privileged to one of the highest diplomatic and strategic offices in our government. When discovered, she not only lied about it but had evidence destroyed.

    Yes. It’s not just that our government clearly knows she’s a felon (a govt. official held a press conference to explain the crime), but that the felony in question was criminally negligent mishandling of classified information. And not an isolated case, but something that was planned, and done as a matter of routine.

    By the way, isn’t the very definition of a conspiracy that multiple people plan and carry out a crime? Oh, nevermind. Conspiracies aren’t real.

    • #34
  5. Joshua Bissey Inactive
    Joshua Bissey
    @TheSockMonkey

    Henry Racette (View Comment):
    I’ve always thought we should try very hard not to indict presidential candidates. There’s a real banana republic feel to it, and it’s the kind of thing that could get out of hand quickly.

    Maybe, but I would submit that option was closed by James Comey. Can we really have the director of the FBI lay out that kind of evidence against a Secretary of State, and then just refuse to follow up on it?

    If we’re going to go easy on rival politicians, we can’t turn a spotlight on their crimes, and then do nothing. That can’t be the right way to do it.

    • #35
  6. Steven Seward Member
    Steven Seward
    @StevenSeward

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):

    I have been waiting for someone to write this post for a long time. Thank you Aaron. That Hillary Clinton has skated while Trump has been harassed for the last two years based on evidence that Hillary’s campaign planted is beyond appalling. We all know that certain people have always managed to escape prosecution, that the deck is often stacked in favor of those in power, but we rarely see a case like this when obvious, proven criminal activity is ignored while bogus, absurd charges are pursued. I have been wondering for two years why Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, did not order the FBI to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton for the acts she committed while Secretary of State. The fact that she lost the election to Trump should not have given her a pass. Prosecuting her would have been proof, not that we are a third world nation, but that no one is above the law.

    Amen, Brother!

    • #36
  7. Unsk Member
    Unsk
    @Unsk

    Great post Aaron.

    I think the Clinton Crime Syndicate ( it’s not just Hillary,btw) is unfortunately a symptom  and a  result of a far more deadlier disease that infects  millions of so-called “liberals” who  value winning at all costs, protecting their ill-gotten fiefdoms and tearing down our Republic’s most hallowed institutions over protecting the Rule of Law and the justice that it brings.

    There are several different facets, almost too many to discuss,  to this story.

    Hillary was not alone – she had help, tenacious, determined  help and lots of it. The question is why?

    The answer is that bald faced lying,  selling influence, “pay to play” corruption, covering up crimes, protecting ill- gotten fiefdoms, warping legal issues, rigging elections and selling out their country have become thoroughly ingrained  in the way most Big City and Blue State Democrats do business.  It is just the way things are done now.  Ethics and justice be damned; the ends always justifies the means to these people. Many of these so-called “liberals’ get involved in politics and government with the best of intentions, but sooner or later the  corrupt Democrat Machine lures them into the Democrat’s  dark web of corruption and before these once well intentioned people know it they are in too deep with evidence to get out, La Cosa Nostra style.

    This list of Democrats ( and unfortunately not a few Republicans) who have sold their souls to this situation is a very long one. Hillary and Bill with the assistance and partnership  of Buraq Hussein just took it to another level in the last administration.  They took “pay to play” to a national and international level in an almost breathtakingly brazen way.

    I suspect Hillary’s “felonious mishandling of State secrets” was purposeful.  In part, she set up her private and easily hacked email account to evade detection of her illegal ways by the normal bureaucratic safeguards and procedures. We know that Hillary was selling influence and access to her all but certain to be Presidency as well as  arranging multiple deals like $145 million Uranium One payoff  and illegal Pharmaceutical deals around the globe with Bill Gates. She also  hit up governments for access.  Among other nations like Saudi Arabia, Australia allegedly gave the Clintons $88 million, with Spygate  figure and former Aussie Foreign Minister Clintonista Anthony Downer arranging $25 million personally.

    But there is one huge and disturbing tell that came out of the “Russian Collusion/Spygate affair; early in the Obama Administration, it was known by the CIA that Hillary’s personnel email had been hacked  with disastrous effect ( 20 American agents in China were outed and executed) and NOBOBY AT THE CIA GAVE A DAMN.  The CIA did not notify Congress, and let this stealing of critical, classified secrets continue on uninterrupted.  One has to ask oneself how does this happen?  The only reasonable assumption is  that people at the top, including Hillary and Buraq were paid off to sell us out.

    • #37
  8. WillowSpring Member
    WillowSpring
    @WillowSpring

    Henry Racette (View Comment):
    I think Hillary Clinton was a deeply corrupt woman, but I’d rather see her sink into a well-deserved obscurity than spend time in jail. I think it would be better for the country.

    I originally “liked” this, based on the thought that it seemed like a banana republic, but on further thinking and reading later posts, I think that Hillary’s actions have passed some sort of bar*.  If you prosecute your foe for something like campaign finance law issues that might be banana republic like – think of the Obama justice department going after D’Sousa.  Now, that was a banana republic.

    But if the transgressions are of the order of Hillary’s, I think it is more important to show that the law is applied equally, no matter the political issues.

    • I hadn’t realized that you can go back and remove a “like”.  That is a nice feature.
    • #38
  9. SecondBite Member
    SecondBite
    @SecondBite

    I approve of not prosecuting HRC while she was a candidate:  presidential candidates are good flight risks, after all, and government initiating legal action to stymie candidates for office is a thing to be avoided.  But when the election is over, the misdeeds should be prosecuted:  if the candidate is successful by Congress, if not, by the Justice Department.  There ought to be an enhancement for running for office, having knowingly committed crimes and putting the government and the electorate in such a position.  The fact that HRC has been able to leave the field peacefully and unmolested by the law is a travesty.  Very high on the scale of worisomeness.

    • #39
  10. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Unsk (View Comment):
    with Spygate figure and former Aussie Foreign Minister Clintonista Anthony Downer arranging $25 million personally

    Very well put.  I didn’t know Downer was a bag carrier, but I always wondered specifically how he came to be chosen as an operative in this.  Now I have a better idea.  He ways always involved.  Thanks for the info.

    • #40
  11. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    based on evidence that Hillary’s campaign planted is beyond appalling

    What gets me is that this wasn’t just planted by the Hillary campaign, it was produced in conjunction with the CIA and MI6.  Steel was MI6.  His boss, Bob Hannigan, resigned right after the election.

    The CIA, FBI and DOJ were in on this plan from the very beginning.

    • #41
  12. Western Chauvinist Member
    Western Chauvinist
    @WesternChauvinist

    Flicker (View Comment):

    Eugene Kriegsmann (View Comment):
    based on evidence that Hillary’s campaign planted is beyond appalling

    What gets me is that this wasn’t just planted by the Hillary campaign, it was produced in conjunction with the CIA and MI6. Steel was MI6. His boss, Bob Hannigan, resigned right after the election.

    The CIA, FBI and DOJ were in on this plan from the very beginning.

    You mean foreign governments were trying to influence our elections? I’m shocked! Shocked!

    • #42
  13. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Steven Seward (View Comment):

    kidCoder (View Comment):

    You are not a felon until you are convicted. I’m more concerned with our justice system that didn’t yet charge Clinton with anything.

    I’ve been wondering too, why the Trump administration didn’t do a thing to correct this. Hillary is the biggest current example of the rich and powerful getting a different standard of justice than the average Joe. This is a violation of one of the most basic tenets of Judeo-Christian values and Western Civilization in general. Justice is supposed to be meted out equally irrespective of your socio-economic status.

    Can you image what Robert Mueller would have done to Hillary if she was an official in the Trump campaign? An Army of SWAT Teams would have descended upon her house at 4 o’clock in the morning with guns drawn and bull horns blaring.

    Only in your dreams. Mueller relied on the FBI, which has been politicized beyond belief and is only out to get blood from those in the Center or on the Right.

    Considering how Pres Trump, who was an admirer of John F Kennedy and Norman Vincent Peale, has become an absolute  pariah among the New Left really makes my head hurt.

    • #43
  14. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    Considering how Pres Trump, who was an admirer of John F Kennedy and Norman Vincent Peale, has become an absolute pariah among the New Left really makes my head hurt.

    John F. Kennedy and Norman V. Peale were in a completely different era in the 1950s and 1960s. I also admired Kennedy and have a certificate of having completed Peale’s course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dr. Peale taught positive thinking, and for a kid of 16 from orphanage and foster care it was a life saver. President Trump is 10 years younger than I and no doubt  he was influenced. He reminds me very much of Dr. Peale. The New Left haven’t got a clue, as they probably have never heard of him.

    • #44
  15. CarolJoy, Above Top Secret Coolidge
    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret
    @CarolJoy

    Kay of MT (View Comment):

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    Considering how Pres Trump, who was an admirer of John F Kennedy and Norman Vincent Peale, has become an absolute pariah among the New Left really makes my head hurt.

    John F. Kennedy and Norman V. Peale were in a completely different era in the 1950s and 1960s. I also admired Kennedy and have a certificate of having completed Peale’s course in How to Win Friends and Influence People. Dr. Peale taught positive thinking, and for a kid of 16 from orphanage and foster care it was a life saver. President Trump is 10 years younger than I and no doubt he was influenced. He reminds me very much of Dr. Peale. The New Left haven’t got a clue, as they probably have never heard of him.

    The story I heard about Trump and Peale is that Peale was the minister at whatever church that Trump and his parents attended while he was growing up.

    Foster care is possibly the most challenging experience a child can have. And it keeps getting worse and worse, at least here in California. Anyone who makes it out alive and with positive thoughts is a survivor. I think I now understand where your compassion and strength came from. (And not just from Dr Peale’s influence.)

    • #45
  16. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    The story I heard about Trump and Peale is that Peale was the minister at whatever church that Trump and his parents attended while he was growing up.

    Ah, that lucky guy!

    • #46
  17. Kay of MT Inactive
    Kay of MT
    @KayofMT

    CarolJoy, Above Top Secret (View Comment):
    Foster care is possibly the most challenging experience a child can have. And it keeps getting worse and worse, at least here in California. Anyone who makes it out alive and with positive thoughts is a survivor. I think I now understand where your compassion and strength came from. (And not just from Dr Peale’s influence.)

    I went from my 10th foster home to a children’s Dude Ranch, in St. Helena, Chiles Valley CA, where I worked and was offered Dr. Peale’s course. And, it changed my life. It gave me the courage to strike out on my own. To believe in myself. Since other people hadn’t done a very good job of it, I did much better. I made a few mistakes as I was so young when I started, but soon recovered. And thank you @caroljoy for the compliment.

    • #47
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