Raid on Project Veritas journalists once again shows the different standards in the application of law
Yesterday, reports appeared in The New York Times and elsewhere that the FBI searched the home of James O’Keefe, the founder of Project Veritas, on Saturday as part of its investigation into the possible theft of a diary belonging to Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter.
Mr. O’Keefe released a statement acknowledging that the raid had indeed occurred and that the FBI had taken materials of current and former Project Veritas journalists despite the fact that Project Veritas’s legal team previously contacted the Department of Justice and had voluntarily conveyed unassailable facts that demonstrated Project Veritas’ lack of involvement in criminal activity and/or criminal intent.
O’Keefe also states that the Department of Justice had requested Project Veritas to not disclose anything related to the raid or the associated subpoenas. However, what astounded them is that within an hour of one of the raids, The New York Times contacted Project Veritas for comments. O’Keefe was understandably perplexed as to how The New York Times became aware of the existence and execution of a search warrant.
O’Keefe also states that he was approached by tipsters claiming they had a copy of Ashley Biden’s diary. Project Veritas states that they investigated the claims and took steps to corroborate the authenticity of the diary. Since they couldn’t determine the authenticity of the diary, they decided to refrain from publishing any of its contents.
They also state that they attempted to return the diary to an attorney representing Ms. Biden, but that attorney refused to authenticate it.
In the past, Project Veritas had performed sting ops on the likes of Twitter, Planned Parenthood, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), NPR, CNN, and The Washington Post.
The media covered this raid and made sure to prefix Project Veritas with adjectives such as ‘far right,’ ‘alt right,’ ‘right wing,’ and ‘conservative.’ The coded message here is that Project Veritas deserved the raids because they are doing work that benefits the right, also that they are crazy conspiracy theorists crackpots who like the January 6th ‘insurrectionists’ deserve to languish in prison.
It is impossible to know if the DOJ had a valid reason to raid them. We can only look at how the FBI reacted in the past when journalists received material through questionable channels.
Four years ago, MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow had acquired President Trump's tax returns from 2005. She made a big deal about it on Twitter and on her show on MSNBC. It turned out to be a non-issue and proved that Trump had indeed paid his taxes contrary to the claims being made.
Clearly, these tax returns were obtained through illegal means. Perhaps there was a mole in the IRS who handed Maddow’s team the highly confidential documents.
IRS laws say that willful unauthorized disclosure of returns or return information by an employee or former employee is a felony. The penalty can be a fine of up to $5,000 or up to five (5) years in jail, or both, plus costs of prosecution.
However, there has been no raid or even basic inquiries by the FBI on any of Maddow’s offices or properties, so far.
In 2017, the NYT carried a report that phone records and intercepted calls proved that members of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and other Trump associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election.
They claimed the source was ‘four current and former American officials.’ Once again obtaining phone records and intercepting phone calls is illegal.
However, there has been no raid by the FBI on any of the NYT offices or on the properties and offices of the people who carried the story.
Since 2016, the legacy media carried the Trump Russia collusion hoax as if it were real. This even caused the appointment of a special counsel who eventually exonerated Trump. The stunning revelations emerging from the Durham probe continue to prove that this was the Democrat- and media-driven concoction.
Clearly, the legacy media colluded with politicians on the Hill and rogue intelligence agents to concoct and propagate this hoax for ages.
However, there has been no raid by the FBI on any of the offices or the properties of any members of the legacy media to investigate this.
We have seen this happen over and over again: a blatant dual standard in punitive action from various law enforcement agencies.
There are almost two different legal systems in the US. If Trump or anybody who is seen to be pro-Trump, such as Project Veritas, General Flynn, Roger Stone, Michael Cohen, is involved the FBI becomes Dirty Harry.
Regular, decent, hardworking people could be rendered unemployed for refusing to take a vaccine, could be punished for not wearing a mask, and could end up in jail for protesting in Washington.
However, Democrat-favored groups such as BLM can riot and burn down cities and nothing will happen; at worst there may be perfunctory arrests especially if photographs or video of the perpetrators become public. Democrat allies in the legacy media and beyond can break laws to spread propaganda but there is no punishment.
In a democracy, it is essential that law enforcement agencies function as watchdogs. It is essential that they are apolitical since they are the controls that need to be applied uniformly
It is not that these agencies are not functioning as controls; it is just that their objectives have changed to serve the Democrat establishment.
Their goal now is to detect and prevent any occurrence that could harm the Democrat establishment and also to correct — i.e. reduce the impact of — any occurrence that harms the Democrat establishment
Legal egalitarianism that causes all citizens to be equal before the law is a fundamental tenet of any functioning democracy.
When that essential principle begins to fail and the law is selective applied, it is time to worry.
This article is also available on www.AmericanThinker.com
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