America is under attack by overzealous and out-of-control federal prosecutors who are weaponizing our justice system to take out their political enemies. Their friends at the Justice Department and the FBI are providing cover. They intimidate subjects, harass friends, family, and business associates, and they won’t stop their big-game hunting until their enemies are destroyed personally and financially.
Political persecutions are common in countries such as Venezuela, where opponents of the Maduro regime are silenced and jailed. In communist China and Russia, there are thousands of political prisoners. Here in the United States, we incarcerate more people than any other country in the world. Our prosecutors brag about their 93% conviction rate, a statistic that should frighten everyone.
While we are not Venezuela, communist China, or Russia, there are some within the FBI and the DOJ who operate like political hitmen, exercising their government-backed power to take out their political enemies using any means necessary.
For Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation, it sure seems the objective was to protect the corruption within the Obama administration by destroying the Trump presidency and bringing down anyone associated with him or his campaign.
Fortunately, the plan backfired. They found no collusions because there was no collusion. But the work of the politically well-connected destroyed the lives of many good people, including retired Gen. Michael Flynn and longtime Trump confidant and political strategist Roger Stone.
In the case of Flynn, the DOJ has now rightly moved to dismiss the case.
Yet Stone, who was convicted for lying to Congress about matters that were immaterial to the investigation, was sentenced to 40 months in prison. In fact, the misstatements Stone made in his voluntary testimony before the House Intelligence Committee hid no underlying crime. Stone had neither intent nor motive to lie. But he was set up by Robert Mueller.
Not only did Mueller use legal trickery to get the case heard by Trump-hating Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed by Obama, but a member of the jury repeatedly posted anti-Trump and anti-Stone comments on her social media pages. The jury forewoman actually attacked Roger Stone by name on Twitter and Facebook in 2019, starting on the day of Stone’s over-the-top arrest by 29 heavily armed FBI agents in a pre-dawn raid on his Florida home and continued to do so. Because the juror’s social media postings were on a private setting during the trial, there was no way for Stone’s lawyers to know of the juror’s bias even though she is a Democrat who ran for Congress in Tennessee. At the trial’s completion, the corrupt juror deleted most of her social media postings to cover her trail. Despite a Supreme Court standard that every defendant is entitled to an “impartial and indifferent” jury, Jackson ruled that the juror’s social media postings did not constitute evidence of bias against the defendant Stone.
If lying to a member of Congress is a crime, then under the Stone standard, nearly every member of Congress would be sentenced to prison.
Consider these other cases.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton was impeached for lying to a federal grand jury. The Senate decided not to remove Clinton from office, but the lying was obvious to everyone. Time spent in prison? Zero days.
In 2010, Major League Baseball pitcher and two-time World Series champion Roger Clemens was charged with lying to Congress. He was found not guilty even though evidence strongly suggests he lied about using steroids. Time spent in prison? Zero days.
In 1990, former Reagan national security adviser John Poindexter was convicted of lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal. The convictions were reversed on appeal in 1991. Time spent in prison? Zero days.
In 1992, former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted for lying to Congress during the Iran-Contra scandal, and former CIA Deputy Director of Operations Clair George was convicted of lying to Congress. President George H.W. Bush pardoned both men that year. Time spent in prison? Zero days.
If Stone was judged under the same standard as every other Washington insider, then he shouldn’t serve one day in prison. He’s a victim of a political prosecution, and because he refused to cooperate with the prosecutors and testify falsely against the president about their numerous phone contacts in 2016, they now want to send him to prison for almost four years.
But there’s hope. As President Trump recently said during an interview: “Look at Roger Stone. Look at the horrible treatment he’s got. He’s going to be OK. He’s going to be OK.” At the time of Stone’s conviction and the revelations about the corrupt jury forewoman, Trump said it was “a miscarriage of justice, which cannot stand.”
Exposing the corruption at the highest levels of the FBI and Justice Department, and bringing an end to these political prosecutions, is another way of restoring our country’s greatness.
Executive clemency is not just a presidential power. It’s a tool to correct wrongs. It is clear that Stone was not given a fair trial. The Federal Bureau of Prisons has ordered him to surrender for incarceration on June 30. Although Stone has filed a notice of appeal, that appeal could take years while he unjustly wastes time in a federal prison.
Stone’s political enemies, who conspired to smear him, will be celebrating on June 30 when he reports to prison. But as Trump said just a few weeks ago, Stone is going to be okay.
Mark Vargas is a tech entrepreneur, political strategist, criminal justice reform advocate, and contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential Blog. From 2007-2010, he served as a civilian in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Follow Mark on Twitter: @MarkAVargas.
