It seemed in 2016 to be just a handful of rogue FBI and DOJ officials. But we now know beyond doubt, with the shameful pre-dawn raid by 30+ FBI agents on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home to confiscate 15 boxes of materials, that it’s a systemic, methodical, highly-orchestrated attempt to shut half the country completely out. Two things must happen, like a one-two punch to put an end to this travesty:

First punch: Every conservative — and fair-minded liberal — must galvanize and gear up to change Congress in November, in a landslide.

Knockout punch: After we do that and Trump announces, we need to rally around him and simply say, “He is the candidate.” He will be re-elected. That’s because he’s the only candidate who’ll have the guts to take on this incredibly corrupt machine. We must put him back in and let him do this. I’m convinced at this point that this is the only hope for our nation, to get it back to the point where people can believe in it. As it stands now, half of us, if not more than half, do not.

That’s what I told Sean Hannity last night. Even before this raid, I had said in this newsletter, “Stick a fork in the FBI. It’s done.” As of yesterday, it’s beyond done; it has made an ash of itself.

Trump Supporters — Do Not Overreact

Before continuing, I’d like to join Legal Insurrection in strongly cautioning Trump supporters not to overreact. Yesterday’s abuse of power by the FBI was so egregious that it seems likely to be a calculated provocation, to goad us into reacting in a way that gives them an excuse to crack down even more on conservatives as “domestic terrorists.” They would love for you to do that. So, whatever you do, don’t take the bait.

It was good to see video from last night of Trump supporters peacefully driving by Mar-A-Lago to pay respects, waving flags, etc.

Marc Elias Gives Away the Game

Legal Insurrection also has posted numerous responses seen on Twitter, including, if you scroll down, one from Marc Elias that gives away the game, which is, of course, to disqualify Trump from holding office ever again. But we knew that.

According to FOX News sources, the raid was not related to January 6. But one said the FBI was “not being judicious about what they took during the search.” They even brought a safecracker to get into Trump’s safe. It reportedly was empty.

Lee Smith, author of The Plot Against the President, thinks it does have something to do with January 6, however, and that they’re probably trying to make an obstruction case. He agreed that we’re in banana republic, Third World territory now. (Tell me again, who is a threat to democracy?) “It’s a historic day,” he said, “insofar as Americans now understand what we are up against. Our children, our children’s children, will be looking to how we respond” as the left tries to break our spirit.

Criminality at the Department of ‘Justice’

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a statement: “I’ve seen enough. The Department of ‘Justice’ has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization. When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts and leave no stone unturned. Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan furiously called on Garland and Wray to come to the House Judiciary Committee this Friday and answer questions about this action, “which has never happened in American history.”

Gregg Jarrett said the Presidential Records Act of 1978 gives the President the discretion and authority to decide what constitutes “presidential papers” and what he will do with them — even dispose of them. Also, he said, the President is “the ultimate authority in declassifying documents.” He may do this with a mere wave of his hand, without even notifying the National Archives. So, this is “an abuse of power” that had to come down from Garland and Wray.

Alan Dershowitz, who is not a Trump supporter, said if the DOJ wanted boxes of materials under the Presidential Records Act, they could’ve handled it with a phone call, maybe a meeting. And since he was in New York, not at Mar-A-Lago, they could have simply issued a “next-day” subpoena knowing he wouldn’t be there to destroy anything. Only if evidence might be destroyed is a raid justified. Also, they would’ve needed a “special warrant” to enter Trump’s safe, but they did it, anyway. They wanted to create the illusion that there’s something criminal about Trump. The criminality is with the Department of “Justice.”

Third World Garbage

Yes, criminality. But Dan Bongino was even harsher: “This is a freaking disgrace. A disgrace. We don’t live in Cuba. We don’t live under Kim Jong-Un. We live in a constitutional republic, a representative democracy. You have a bunch of FBI agents raiding the home of a former President because they don’t like his politics? Are you kidding me?”

Bongino shares my disgust after the FBI’s Washington DC field office — with the full knowledge of Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Chris Wray — went to Florida and raided Mar-A-Lago. (By the way, as we reported yesterday, the DC field office is now being run by the same FBI official who ran the Detroit office involved with the Gov. Gretchen Whitmer attempted kidnapping case.) My blood ran cold when I heard this had been done. As Bongino said last night, “The management of the FBI has now shredded any…sliver of integrity this agency had left. Nobody will take them seriously from this point on. It is over.”

“You cannot tell me we still live in a constitutional republic,” he said, “and not the freaking Third World, when you have Hillary Clinton paying foreign agents to interfere with an election, people lying under oath repeatedly, Hunter Biden doing crack on tape, and what happens? Where are the federal agents? They’re not in Malibu, they’re not in Chappaqua, they’re in Mar-A-Lago. This is some Third World garbage that happened tonight…”

He also concurs that we’ve got to win this November. “We have no choice now, folks.” This is not the time to sit back and say all politicians are alike. There are, of course, some swampy Republicans, he said, but conservatives in the GOP are the only hope. And they must have a majority. Both houses. They must have the power to impeach those responsible for the implosion of our “justice” system.

“Please, God,” he said, “I am begging you to vote in 2022,” Bongino said, “or you might not recognize this place afterwards.”

A Chilling Abuse of Power

Indeed, it’s barely recognizable now, and I feel sick to my stomach as never before. After all the years of investigation President Trump has endured, they finally resorted to a political hit on him just as he might be announcing for President. Our country cannot survive without a total housecleaning at the Department of “Justice.” Trump should have fired them all on his first day in office, when he had the chance, and been more careful about appointments. In fact, the FBI must be scrapped, and the law enforcement bureau that replaces it shouldn’t be entrusted with classified investigations at all.

The chilling event that occurred yesterday — the most flagrant abuse of power I’ve seen in America in my lifetime — comes after months and months — years, actually — of revelations about how dirty the FBI has been, playing with political enemies while letting political buddies off the hook for almost unbelievable corruption: Hillary’s blatant obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. Her role in starting the whole “Trump-Russia” hoax. Obvious influence peddling by the Biden family. Their own participation in election interference in 2016, 2020, and now the upcoming elections. You don’t have to be a part of Trump’s so-called “base” to know: The abuse of power taking place now absolutely cannot stand. If this doesn’t show us how seriously twisted the justice system is in 2022 America, nothing ever will.

And yet those on the left are laughing and clapping their hands with glee. Maybe it hasn’t occurred to them to ask the question Newt Gingrich posed last night: “If 30 FBI agents can take over the house of a former President of the United States and probable candidate for President, what can they do to YOU?” We’re closer to being a police state, he said, and “eliminating the Constitution as a real document.”

They’re a socialist machine, Gingrich said. They know they’re going to die if Trump wins again. So they’re trying to stay in control through fear.

If they can stop Trump, who else will ever dare to challenge them?

The Raid Was Unnecessary

The New York Times (where a lot of the laughing and clapping is coming from) reported that, according to two sources, the FBI took 15 boxes of materials from Mar-A-Lago. The investigation reportedly focuses on some material, including documents alleged to be classified, that Trump took there after he left the White House. The NY Times says Trump “delayed” returning boxes after the National Archives had called for them, “only doing so when there became a threat of action…of them being taken.”

But Eric Trump said on Hannity last night that his father “has worked so collaboratively with them [the National Archives] for months. In fact, the lawyer who’s been working on this was totally shocked, because [my dad] had such an amazing relationship with these people, and, all of a sudden with no notice, they sent, you know, 20 cars and 30 agents?” He said his father had an “open door policy” and that this could only have come from one place: “the White House in Washington DC.”

(Note: the White House is denying it had notice of the raid — sure — and referred questions to the “Justice” Department.)

Trump issued a statement, saying in part, “These are dark times for our Nation, as my beautiful home, Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents…Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before…It is prosecutorial misconduct, the weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don’t want me to run for President in 2024.”

He also said this kind of assault could only take place “in broken Third World countries.” Here’s his full statement.

A Baffling and Breathtaking Action

According to Jason Chaffetz, a former member of the Oversight Committee who dealt with such subpoenas in the Hillary case, President Trump continues to possess a security clearance and even has a “skiff,” a secure viewing facility inside Mar-A-Lago. “They have NO business doing that,” he said, “none whatsoever.”

He also praised Trump for being open with investigators when they wanted his attorney to go talk to them. He said Trump was “as open and transparent as anybody that we ever interacted with.”

In contrast, he said, Hillary Clinton, who at the time of her subpoenas had no security clearance, had thousands of documents locked away in her safe at her attorney’s office. They had no security clearance, either. Nothing happened to them. And she destroyed 33,000 documents. (Ah, but as then-FBI Director James Comey said during her presidential campaign, they couldn’t say she “intended” to do anything wrong, and “no reasonable prosecutor” would take her case.) Even Hillary’s senior team was given immunity by the DOJ, for nothing in return.

“I am so ashamed of my country,” Chaffetz said. “…This Department of ‘Justice’ and somebody at the FBI has got to stand up and expose what’s going on there.” He called on the whistleblowers (who were probably watching, he noted) to take a stand. “Quit your job — you’ll get hired by somebody else — and tell the American people the truth.”

Investigative reporter John Solomon said, “This is an extraordinary departure from the way the FBI handled identical allegations in the summer of 2015. I broke this story…[on Hillary Clinton}. They allowed David Kendall, Hillary Clinton’s lawyer, to take the thumb drive with the classified emails and put it in a safe in his office.” Solomon also pointed out that this comes less than a week after Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit to free up those National Archives documents; we await more detail from JW on the significance of that. Finally, recall that a week ago, Sen. Chuck Grassley said whistleblowers had accused the DC field office — the ones who carried out this raid — of political tampering in investigations.

“All of the optics are bad on this,” Solomon said, “all of the procedural thing about it.” Unless they have evidence that Trump was about to destroy documents (remember, he wasn’t even there), this could backfire big-time.

A Reckless Abomination

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley expressed shock and called this action “breathtaking” — a raid on a former President who could be the “the future opponent of the current President.” He was “baffled” as to why Merrick Garland, if he thought the evidence warranted it, didn’t appoint a special counsel. Why would he not, under these circumstances — and with Hunter Biden as well — see an “absolute necessity” for one? “Who should be ordering these types of raids?” he asked.

Turley said he thought AG Garland would have been more sensitive to this time of political rage we’re currently in. (Editorial aside: With all respect, where did he get that idea?) He called it “reckless.” Oh, it’s much more than reckless.

Turley also pointed out that a federal judge decided there was sufficient evidence to issue a warrant. To that, I sadly have to say, so what? With the “justice” system in the shape it’s in right now, “having a warrant” gives me zero reason to think this raid was justified. Who knows if the judge was even given accurate information?

Of course, we don’t know what they’re investigating, but Turley said, “If the evidence is no more than what we saw from the January 6 committee, I would be, frankly, shocked that this type of raid occurred at this time.”

He said the “Justice” Department should give some statement as to why this was done. There have been “legitimate questions” of bias on the part of the Justice Department.

Former senior White House adviser Stephen Miller was more blunt: “This is an abomination. You have the sitting President of the United States, Joe Biden, through his Justice Department, through his FBI, conducting a raid on the person who is presumed to be his opponent in the next election.” He pointed out the astonishing discrepancy in the way Hillary’s known misdeeds have been handled and said, “We are truly living in a situation where the FBI has become a Praetorian Guard from Rome, where they take it unto themselves to decide who wields power in this country.”

An Attack on The Republic

The great Mark Levin said plenty: “Everybody’s guessing; I’ll tell you what happened. This is in the jurisdiction of the U.S. attorney in DC, who’s also overseeing the January 6 prosecutions. Why? ‘Cause that’s where the National Archives is, in [DC]…He wouldn’t do anything without the sign-off of the Attorney General of the United States…This was well-orchestrated, so this has been going on for weeks…”

He guessed the attorney general would later say they’d heard some documents were going to be destroyed. That will be the pretext. But “there is NO JUSTIFICATION FOR SENDING 30 FRIGGIN’ FBI AGENTS” on an early-morning raid at the President’ home — “or any other case in which they’ve done exactly the same thing.”

“This is the worst attack on this republic in modern history, period. It’s not just an attack on Donald Trump. It’s an attack on everybody who supports him. It’s an attack on anybody who dares to raise serious questions about Washington DC and the establishment, in both parties.”

“…Just look at this Department of ‘Justice’; it’s the most d****d corrupt thing I’ve ever seen.”

We’ll end with a link to a great piece at The Federalist that, coincidentally, we’d already been planning to feature for today before news of the raid broke. Ironically, here’s the title: “The FBI and DOJ Criminalizing Opposition To The Regime Is How The Republic Ends.”

 

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN.

Originally published at MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.