Donald Trump holds a 1 point advantage over President Joe Biden for the 2024 presidential election in the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Many of these polls oversample Democrats. Most survey registered voters or whoever answers the phone when the pollster calls.
Rasmussen Reports surveys U.S. likely voters, those who actually cast votes, and they show Trump with an 8 point lead. They also found little impact from third party candidates such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Jill Stein, or Cornell West.
The deep state, swamp, blob, ruling class, establishment, uni-party, or whatever is today’s term de jour for the permanent administrative state has been pulling out all the stops to vanquish Trump.
Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License
Nonsensical lawfare investigations, lawsuits, special counsels, and baseless accusations are thus far having no effect on “Teflon Don.” That could change, but the Democrats and Never-Trumpers are determined and resourceful. What’s their plan, given that Trump has so far been unstoppable?
President Trump added three relatively conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court over the histrionics of the left, going so far as to accuse one of the nominees of participating in “rape trains” during high school.
Ironically, this current right-leaning court may be Trump’s undoing. And Democrats and Never-Trump “Republicans” are ready to take advantage. SCOTUS placed the knife between Trump’s electoral ribs, the “Trumpophobes” will shove it in deep.
Formerly red, now deep blue, Colorado, with a feckless Republican Party as dysfunctional as a circular firing squad, attempted via their far-left Secretary of State, to keep Trump off the Colorado ballot claiming he is an “insurrectionist.”
Never mind that he has neither been accused nor convicted (other than by Democrats and the media) of insurrection. That did not matter to the Colorado Supreme Court which in their self-proclaimed wisdom deemed that Trump did indeed incite an insurrection.
Perhaps Colorado justices believed that Trump’s words on January 6, "I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard" was a call to overthrow the government that at the time, Trump was in charge of.
Some insurrection.
A few hundred unarmed protesters, wandering through the Capitol, one dressed as a shaman, were about to take control of the three branches of the federal government including the military.
Perhaps the thin air in the Mile High City led to some hypoxic confusion at the Supreme Court building. Or more likely four of the justices just didn’t like Trump and wanted him banished to one of his many golf courses.
As expected, this case arrived at the U.S. Supreme Court where a March 4 decision stated:
The Constitution empowers Congress to prescribe how those determinations should be made. The relevant provision is Section 5, which enables Congress, subject of course to judicial review, to pass “appropriate legislation” to “enforce” the Fourteenth Amendment.
A concurring judgment by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson clarified:
The majority announces that a disqualification for insurrection can occur only when Congress enacts a particular kind of legislation pursuant to Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
In other words, Congress, by a simple majority, can pass a bill claiming that Trump is disqualified from election due to being an “insurrectionist.” An insurrection can be whatever Congress says it is, just like a man wearing a dress can be a woman. When Joe awakens from his nap, he will sign the bill, making it law.
Easy peasy.
This may explain why several Trumpophobe Republican House members have bugged out , trimming what was already a thin House Republican majority.
GOP Reps. Kevin McCarthy, Ken Buck, and Mike Gallagher all abruptly resigned from Congress, leaving Republicans with only a one-vote majority in the House.
Buck hinted that more of his colleagues may resign, potentially leaving Hakeem Jeffries and Democrats controlling U.S. House.
Republicans foolishly expelled Rep. George Santos, a reliable conservative vote, rather than letting him finish his term. He already stated that he wouldn’t run for reelection. Another R vote gone.
Note that Santos was indicted but not convicted. So was Democrat Sen. Robert Menendez and he is still serving in the Democrat-controlled Senate. Republican “principles” lost them a much-needed vote.
If you don’t believe the Democrats would try to disqualify Trump in this manner, such a bill is already in the works, introduced by Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Per Axios :
Raskin pointed to legislation he introduced with Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) in 2022 creating a pathway for the Justice Department to sue to keep candidates off the ballot under the 14th Amendment.
"We are going to revise it in light of the Supreme Court's decision," Raskin said.
Raskin suggested the bill would be paired with a resolution declaring Jan. 6 an "insurrection" and that those involved "engaged in insurrection."
If the House flips to the Democrats, this is a done deal. Even if it doesn’t, don’t be surprised if 1-2 House Republicans, on their way out via resignation or not running for reelection, vote with the Democrats. GOP Reps. Adam Kinzinger and Liz Cheney, if still in Congress, would certainly vote with the Democrats on this one, as would GOP Sens. Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski.
Since the SCOTUS decision mentioned, “Subject of course to judicial review,” that would stop such a scheme, right?
Review by whom?
Why would SCOTUS block such an act of Congress, especially if they green-lighted it in their recent decision. But Democrats have an insurance policy.
They could just add four more far left justices to SCOTUS. Why not? Congress has that power and has exercised it in the past.
Sen. Ed Markey and House of Representatives members Jerrold Nadler, Hank Johnson and Mondaire Jones have scheduled a news conference for Thursday to announce the introduction of the legislation in both chambers. The measure would expand the number of justices from the current nine to 13, according to a copy of the Senate bill reviewed by Reuters.
Once such legislation is passed by a Democrat-controlled House and Senate and signed into law by a Democrat president, expect Barack or Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, Lawrence Tribe, Arthur Engoron, Fani Willis, Stacey Abrams, Norm Eisen, or Eric Holder to be nominated and immediately confirmed to the high court. A Senate GOP minority could do nothing to stop it.
Trump as an “insurrectionist” will be removed from the ballot. And the Bill of Rights and much of the inconvenient Constitution will be reinterpreted by a “new and improved” SCOTUS.
Who needs unconstitutional election law changes? Forget ballot-harvesting, voter I.D., signature verification, social media election censorship and interference, or any other non-legal means of rigging the election. The above plan is Constitutional and will be applauded across corporate media as “democracy in action.”
With Trump gone, we will get a Koch brothers and Chamber of Commerce-approved Republican candidate like Nikki Haley. Whether she or Biden wins won’t matter.
The borders will remain open with likely amnesty for those already here. We will continue to fund endless wars. Some $10 billion will be added to the national debt every day. America’s cultural rot will continue. And the deep state will thrive, controlling the next president as they have most past presidents.
The donor class will get richer and average Americans will fall further into a hole. America First will become America Last.
The Democrats have the perfect solution for kneecapping Trump and keeping Washington, D.C. in a business-as-usual mode for the foreseeable future.
If it’s a possibility to me, Trump is aware of what’s ahead and hopefully has a plan and solution. Otherwise, the GOP will once again shoot itself in the foot over their so-called “principles” on which they can comfortably sit while warming the back benches as a permanent irrelevant minority party, watching the Democrats destroy America as we know it.
Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor , Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack , Truth Social @BrianJoondeph , and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.
Attorney General Garland promises election lawfare
Who can forget October of 2020, when Joe Biden committed a gaffe? He certainly does that more or less constantly, but this one was a classic, because a gaffe is properly defined as what happens when a politician accidently tells the truth:
‘We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics,’ Biden said in the video.
It certainly worked for Biden in 2020, and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, arguably the most corrupt and weaponized in history—that’s saying something with Obama’s “wingman,” Eric Holder in the running—is working hard to keep that organization up and running:
Speaking [in March of 2024] to a predominantly African-American crowd at a Black Selma church service, [AG Merrick Garland] said:
The right to vote is still under attack, and that is why the Justice Department is fighting back. We are challenging efforts by states and jurisdictions who implement discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail-in voting, the use of drop boxes and voter ID requirements.
No, AG Garland, the right to vote is NOT under attack. Georgia, which passed its reform laws after the 2020 election and invited a boycott of woke companies, including Major League Baseball (which canceled the All-Star game in Atlanta), reported that more voters and more minority voters participated in the 2022 elections than at any time in Georgia history. Even Stacey Abrams, the losing candidate for governor in 2018, who never conceded her defeat and became a media darling, accepted that she lost her rematch against Brian Kemp.
How is it possible the chief law enforcement officer in America doesn’t know drop boxes, refusing to enforce ID laws and mail-in ballots are among the best methods of cheating? Or perhaps he does…
Is it possible AG Garland is unaware of the Supreme Court’s 2008 Crawford .v Marion County Election Board decision? NBC was aware, and disappointed:
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional rights, validating Republican-inspired voter ID laws. [skip]
The law "is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting 'the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,'" Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.
Is it possible AG Garland, and the entire DOJ is unable to use Internet search engines, like the engine that provided the URLs I’ve embedded? Or is it more likely they’re simply ignoring the Supreme Court, which they’ve proved more than willing to do? Not every state has voter ID laws. Is Garland worried there aren’t enough states without them to provide the necessary margin of voter fraud for 2024?
Beyond experience and common, adult, sense, there is substantial evidence drop boxes and mail-on balloting are primary sources of virtually untraceable vote fraud. How can it be Garland and the DOJ Voting Rights Section don’t know that? And if that’s so, if they really are that incompetent, that unaware of human and political nature, how is it there are apparently no other attorneys in the entire DOJ who have not set them straight?
Obviously, Garland and his cronies know exactly what they’re doing. They’re enabling vote fraud, surely to ensure illegal immigrants can vote in the millions to put over the electoral finish line a man most legal Americans know is
When Biden politicizes the Justice Department to go after parents, Catholics, Trump, and Trump supporters who mostly peacefully trespassed at the Capitol, people understand how dangerous and biased the Justice Department is.
When the Justice Department lets Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden off for crimes and taking massive kickbacks for access, the result is we get more corruption in government and people further lose the trust in government institutions. The damage is massive and intentional.
With Biden and his Democrats, the damage is intentional
When you have companies in third world countries do the mining for electric vehicle (EV) minerals, is it a surprise that they don't care about the damage that is caused to the environment?
The green pushers also don't seem to care about all the wildlife killed by wind and solar farms.
When California forces certain businesses to pay unreasonably high wages, the result is clearly going to be destructive. Businesses will close, layoffs will occur and higher prices will harm everyone.
Like AB5, CA's Fast-Food Minimum Wage Hike Results in Layoffs, Closures, and Higher Prices
Businesses will clearly have to automate more. Some are employing cashiers from foreign countries on Zoom screens. Businesses that were exempt would also have to raise their wages to compete. A $20 an hour wage actually costs businesses $25 to $30 an hour with all the mandatory taxes and benefits. Wages for higher paid workers would also have to go up.
It's more damage when states enact no bail laws and let career criminals roam the streets, because it is obviously dangerous.
When Oregon and other Democrats decriminalize drugs or make them free, it does not make things better.
When California and other places make theft under $950 a non-crime, they will get more of it. It is not a surprise when businesses close and costs go up.
When a presidential candidate campaigns on opening borders and issues executive orders opening the border and when Democrats run cities and states are sanctuaries that don't punish illegals, the flooding of the country with illegals is intentional. The policies are causing massive harm to the United States. Blaming Trump and Republicans for the problem is a lie.
Closing schools and keeping children out of sports was clearly going to cause massive harm to children, especially vulnerable children who were already behind. Yet supposedly educated people claimed they had no idea these things would happen and they absolve themselves of the harm they intentionally caused.
Democrats always say they are the party for children. They say they like freedom of choice. They claim they are for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet, when policies are suggested to offer poor and minority children to leave poorly performing schools and go to schools that better off parents can send their kids to, Democrats block those options. The intentional destructive result is to hold those vulnerable children back.
When the CDC, and White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, continually lied to push the dictatorial edicts on COVID and its lockdowns, it was obviously going to cause people not to trust them. Yet the media and other Democrats continue to pretend they should be trusted and everything they did was based on science.
When Democrats hand out freebies to buy votes, intentionally open borders and flood the country with millions of illegals, and when they have a goal to destroy companies that produce reasonably priced energy, the result is going to be one problem after another. Continually blaming others is an intentional lie.
When Biden's policy is to destroy oil companies, it is clearly going to raise prices which helps Russia and Iran finance their wars and their terrorism. The high prices also greatly harm all Americans, especially the poor and middle class.
The results are so predictable that the destruction has to be intentional.
Are Biden and Obama so stupid that they believe giving the tyrants in Iran access to hundreds of billions of dollars that it would make the world and the Iranian people safer? How is that working out?
Instead of focusing on defending America, our military seems to have prioritized pronouns, DEI, CRT, white privilege and going after right wing extremists (Trump supporters). Now there is a major shortage of recruits. While China and other adversaries are building their military we are focused on not hurting people's feelings. The damage is intentional.
Forcing women to compete against men in sports and to share locker rooms with men is clearly going to harm women. Democrats should stop pretending that they are the party that respects women's rights.
Democrats implemented great society and anti-poverty programs sixty years ago that essentially promoted the breakup of families. The clear result is that we now have a huge percentage of single parents and generational poverty. The fact that Democrats continue to promote and expand these policies indicates that the results are intentional.
Forcing people to buy specific health insurance policies with massive mandates including no lifetime or annual limits was clearly going to take away choice, reduce competition, and raise prices. For fourteen years, insurance costs have skyrocketed, and for fourteen years Democrats have lied that Obamacare has made healthcare more affordable. The bad results are intentional because the goal of Democrats is to force government insurance on all of us.
Forcing businesses to make electric vehicles and forcing people to buy them makes vehicles more unaffordable. Forcing people to switch out their furnaces, appliances, lawn mowers will greatly harm the poor and middle class and these radical green policies will not have any effect on temperatures or storms or sea levels. The intentional destruction is massive.
As America has an explosive increase in demand for power due to data centers, AI, Crypto, electric vehicles and factories pretending to be green Democrats are focused on closing down oil, gas, and coal plants as fast as they can. That is intentionally destructive. While Democrats want to close down efficient plants with affordable energy, China is rapidly building coal plants. Which country will be more successful?
Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country,
Democrats are throwing money at daycare expenses to supposedly make it more affordable, but the policy, like all subsidies, makes prices go up much faster for people who pay. The policy is intentionally damaging.
Since the 1960s, the government has been throwing money at colleges to supposedly make them more affordable. The result of this largess is that colleges have used these funds to jack up their costs rapidly. Instead of having colleges control their costs, throwing money at the problem disincentivizes cost-control. After all, most educators vote for Democrats so they don't care. The result is students have massive debt. Biden's solution is not to hold colleges accountable for screwing parents and kids, it is to dictatorially and unconstitutionally force taxpayers to pay off the debt to buy votes.
When Biden politicizes the Justice Department to go after parents, Catholics, Trump, and Trump supporters who mostly peacefully trespassed at the Capitol, people understand how dangerous and biased the Justice Department is.
When the Justice Department lets Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden off for crimes and taking massive kickbacks for access, the result is we get more corruption in government and people further lose the trust in government institutions. The damage is massive and intentional.
When the Biden administration closed the air force base in Afghanistan, cleared out a prison with terrorists, and left billions in weapons for the Taliban. did they expect good results? The Taliban just brought back stoning.
Obama ran on remaking America. The disastrous consequences of Democrat policies are so obvious that they must be intentional. It is as if a community organizer who is a disciple of the radical Saul Alinsky was intentionally trying to destroy America so he could remake it in the radical image. Sadly, most of the media just cheer while this intentional destruction of America is clearly happening. Either the journalists don't understand or don't care how many people and businesses they intentionally destroy.
I would challenge everyone to name current Democrat policies that are meant to help the poor and middle class vs. making the government more powerful. I can't think of any.
James Biden admitted to Congress in February that he earned money to organize some of the loans for the company. He received a $200,000 loan from Americore and on the same day, cut Joe Biden a $200,000 check, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) revealed in October.
Biden-appointed Judge Rips DOJ for Ignoring House Subpoenas While Navarro in Prison boonchai wedmakawand/Getty Images 2:55
U.S. District Court Judge Ana Reyes slammed lawyers for the Department of Justice for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. House of Representatives when Peter Navarro is sitting in prison for the same conduct.
Navarro is serving a four-month sentence for refusing to obey a subpoena from the January 6 Committee. Navarro argued that it would have been a violation of the Constitution’s separation of powers for a presidential aide to comply.
The Biden Department of Justice has relied on the same argument in shielding two of its lawyers, Mark Daly and Jack Morgan, from subpoenas by the House Judiciary Committee in its impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
The committee wants to ask Daly and Morgan about their role in investigating the president’s son, Hunter Biden, for tax violations that were slow-walked and almost dropped before a federal judge in Delaware questioned a plea deal.
Politico reported :
U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee on the federal District Court in Washington, spent nearly an hour accusing Justice Department attorneys of rank hypocrisy for instructing two other lawyers in the DOJ Tax Division not to comply with the House subpoenas.
“There’s a person in jail right now because you all brought a criminal lawsuit against him because he did not appear for a House subpoena,” Reyes said, referring to the recent imprisonment of Peter Navarro , a former Trump trade adviser, for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. “And now you guys are flouting those subpoenas. … And you don’t have to show up?”
Top House Republicans recently demanded Attorney General Merrick Garland reveal if the Justice Department launched an investigation into Biden family whistleblowers.
The probe into the Department of Justice (DOJ) underscores the ongoing House impeachment inquiry’s investigation into President Joe Biden and his family members involved in the Biden business.
Biden family (Alex Wong, Teresa Kroeger, Win McNamee, Kris Connor, Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
“The Committees will not tolerate any retaliatory conduct by the Department against these or any other whistleblowers,” Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY), and Ways and Means Committee chair Jason Smith (R-MO) wrote Garland this week:
Whistleblowers play an integral role in identifying and rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, mismanagement, and corruption within federal agencies. Federal law protects whistleblowers from retaliation.
Any efforts, including those by the Department, to investigate whistleblowers for making lawful disclosures raise serious concerns about the continued weaponization of the federal government. Any and all attempts to intimidate or retaliate against Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler for their protected disclosures to Congress must stop.
Two IRS whistleblowers disclosed politically damaging information about the Biden administration and the Biden family business:
Alleged Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf refused to allow investigators to ask about Joe Biden being “the big guy” Alleged the DOJ twice prevented U.S. Attorney David Weiss from bringing stronger charges against Hunter Alleged Garland refused to name a special counsel in the tax investigation Alleged the IRS recommended charges against Hunter that were not approved by Garland After the disclosures to Congress, Hunter Biden’s attorneys reportedly pushed the DOJ to prosecute IRS whistleblowers. In June, the committee voted to make public multiple instances of alleged political interference in which the DOJ “thwarted, hampered or interfered” with the IRS tax investigation into Hunter.
The House began investigating the Bidens in November 2022. During the probe, investigators found a massive web of wire transfers, 20 shell companies , and associates who helped the Biden family business rake in at least $24 million from foreign nationals over the course of approximately five years.
They also revealed Joe Biden received money from James and Hunter Biden. In addition, they showed that nine additional family members received payments from the Bidens’ foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.
RELATED — CNN’s Jackson: We Wouldn’t Be Here with Hunter ‘if It Were Not for the Whistleblowers’
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality . Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
Obviously, Garland and his cronies know exactly what they’re doing. They’re enabling vote fraud, surely to ensure illegal immigrants can vote in the millions to put over the electoral finish line a man most legal Americans know is demented. In the process, they’re insulting America’s poor and black citizens, branding them too stupid to obtain identification necessary for daily life. Reasonable people might call that racist.
It all starts at the top. Joe Biden has made a career out of using the government and the legal system to attack his political enemies. He has the backing of the Justice Department, the FBI, and the IRS. Trump supporters Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, and Peter Navarro have seen their civil rights disappear. The same goes for the January 6th defendants.
Destroying the American system of justice
Some days I think I must be dreaming. Two deranged “public servants” -- the vindictive New York State attorney general and a leftist judge with a bad haircut -- are being given free rein to subvert our justice system by placing titanic barriers against the Republican nominee’s ability to run for president. What is happening to our country and who will stop it?
How is it possible that someone with Trump’s extraordinary accomplishments can be brought down by two vile and inconsequential persons such as Letitia James and Arthur Engoron? Their lawsuit has the support of, and is the consequence of, the Democratic Party’s efforts to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
To begin with, James’ fraud case against Trump is a farce. There is no crime and no victim. No one has been harmed. It is purely a weaponization of the legal system for political ends. As Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary has observed, what Trump is alleged to have done -- overvalue his real estate properties when applying for a bank loan -- is normal business practice all over the globe. The bank made money and is anxious to do business with him again.
Thanks to a publicity-hungry, overtly anti-Trump judge, James’ phony indictment has been backed up with an unheard-of $460-million judgment. And they want it now. No one has that kind of cash floating around. Unless he comes up with an impossible-to-obtain bond, Trump is precluded from his right to appeal.
Without waiting for the outcome of an appeal, James wants to seize Trump’s real estate holdings. Adding insult to injury, Judge Engoron has ordered a court to oversee the Trump organization for a minimum of three years. This is the Soviet-style textbook for “How to Take Down a Billionaire.”
If the Democrats can get away with this partisan assault on someone like Donald Trump, imagine what they will do to you and me in pursuit of their leftist policies. The American public is no longer protected by due process and the rule of law. The rule has just changed to, “Whatever the Democrats want.”
It all starts at the top. Joe Biden has made a career out of using the government and the legal system to attack his political enemies. He has the backing of the Justice Department, the FBI, and the IRS. Trump supporters Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Roger Stone, and Peter Navarro have seen their civil rights disappear. The same goes for the January 6th defendants.
There is a glimmer of hope. The James/Engoron anti-Trump judgment could be overturned by the New York State Appellate Division. It would be a massive miscarriage of justice if it is not overturned, but given the Democratic Party’s hold on New York judges and juries, the judgment may be upheld. Even if it is overturned, Trump will have been irreparably harmed by the seizure of his assets.
If the Democrats succeed in destroying Trump, the doors will be open to perverting the legal system as required for the leftist agenda of the Democratic Party. In short, we will have a one-party state and America’s justice system will be history.
Will anyone stop them? “The whole world is watching,” said Kevin O’Leary. “Where are the adults in this crazy narrative? We need an adult in the room. This is the United States of America under siege.”
Ed Brodow is a conservative political commentator and author of two No. 1 Amazon Best Sellers, AMERICA ON ITS KNEES: The Cost of Replacing Trump with Biden , and THE WAR ON WHITES: How Hating White People Became the New National Sport.
Image: Library of Congress
It certainly worked for Biden in 2020, and his Attorney General, Merrick Garland, arguably the most corrupt and weaponized in history—that’s saying something with Obama’s “wingman,” Eric Holder in the running—is working hard to keep that organization up and running:
The DOJ sued DISH network for $3.3 billion but dismissed the suit after its chair donated to Biden
Two sayings are pertinent to this essay. The first is that correlation does not imply causation. Just because two events seem connected doesn’t mean they are. The second is that timing is everything. Think about both as you consider the Department of Justice’s decision to dismiss a massive corporate fraud lawsuit a short time after the corporation’s founder made a sizable donation to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.
DISH Network is an American satellite network. In 2015, the DOJ sued DISH under the False Claims Act. The suit was based on Whistleblower Vermont National Telephone Company, Inc.’s allegation that DISH and its affiliates were allegedly using fraud to get small business discounts for wireless spectrum licenses. As recently as November 2023 , a federal judge kept the case alive in the face of DISH’s motion for a judgment on the pleadings (i.e., DISH contended that the DOJ’s complaint contained within it the seeds of its own destruction).
On December 15, 2023, less than one month after the federal court refused to dismiss the DOJ’s suit, one of DISH’s founders, Charlie Ergen, along with his wife, Candy, donated a total of $113,200 to keep Biden in the White House…and, inevitably, to keep his currently constituted Department of Justice in power.
Image: A downed DISH receiver by frankieleon. CC BY 2.0 .
On January 10, 2024, only three-and-a-half weeks after Ergen sent his money to Biden, and while the fraud suit was still pending, DISH received $50 million in taxpayer funds when the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration announced an $80 million round of five grants. The other four grantees divided the remaining $30 million in grant money.
A mere two days after the $50 million grant, the attorney for Vermont Telephone, which had triggered the DOJ’s initial action against DISH, complained that the DOJ was putting pressure on Vermont Telephone to enter into “an unethical settlement” or it would dismiss the suit:
The move to dismiss the case scrapped plans to depose the Ergens about their knowledge of the allegedly fraudulent scheme, prompting Vermont Telephone’s attorneys to accuse the Justice Department of political interference.
“[I]t appears that the effect — if not the purpose — of the DOJ’s rush to seek dismissal of this case is to protect Mr. Ergen from being questioned under oath,” Ross wrote in a Feb. 8 letter to the lead DOJ attorneys handling the case, according to a copy reviewed by The Post.
“We do not believe it is a coincidence that Mr. Ergen, his wife (who also is scheduled to be deposed next week), and DISH’s Political Action Committee collectively contributed in excess of $5 million to Democratic candidates and causes between 2008 and 2022,” he added.
“With the upcoming election, this case looks like just the latest example of the DOJ’s two-tiered justice system under which the well-heeled, politically connected are treated one way, while everyone else is treated differently.”
The last item in this chronology is that on March 8, the DOJ moved to dismiss the case. You can read more details about the whole case, from its inception to the motion to dismiss, in this New York Post article . Indeed, the article is worth reading as an expose about how corporate money and politics work in D.C., with most money flowing to Democrats but surprisingly large sums keeping individual Republicans afloat.
As I noted at the start of this post, just because there seems to be a connection between things, that doesn’t mean there is a connection. The chronology suggests that, once Ergen started throwing large sums of money at a sitting president whose re-election campaign is in trouble, that same president told his Department of Justice to lay off his good friend. It could just be, though, that the case has been kicking about for years so that the DOJ decided it was time to unload it because it was hogging resources without any discernable benefit to the American people.
But as always, timing is everything, and the appearance of impropriety can be just as powerful as actual impropriety. We’ve long known that Garland’s DOJ is driven by politics, not principle. Now, we have the strong suggestion that it can be bought, too.
demented. In the process, they’re insulting America’s poor and black citizens, branding them too stupid to obtain identification necessary for daily life. Reasonable people might call that racist. Reasonable people might also think our republic is better off if people who can’t get identification, and can’t be bothered to get to the polls on election day, don’t vote. Obviously, people who have legitimate reasons for being unable to be present on election day, like our military serving overseas and the handicapped, must be allowed absentee ballots, but with effective safeguards and verification.
Using taxpayer resources and the power of the federal government to violate Supreme Court decisions and enable vote fraud on a never before imagined scale is among the most un-American, anti-republican acts of a thoroughly corrupt administration. Reasonable people might call that tyrannical. And they’d be right, and consistent. They’re absolutely perpetuating “the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics.”
That’s great for “our democracy—a permanent, one-party, Democrat/socialist/communist state, but terrible for our constitutional, representative republic. I wonder if Garland has heard about that?
Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
Graphic: X screenshot
