Thursday, August 11, 2022

Editorial -- No President is Above the Law

Recently, the FBI took the step of raiding the home of former President Donald Trump, looking for classified documents that the former President brought with him when he left office. The object should not be to go after one’s political opponent. The object should be to uphold the law. While people, including Mr. Trump, are presumed innocent until proven guilty, the FBI was within its rights to execute a search warrant on his property, provided that it was properly done, and signed off on by a judge.

This action was not taken against Hillary Clinton, who allegedly illegally deleted 33,000 emails from her private server. This action was not taken against Hunter Biden. If there was probable cause to believe that either Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Biden committed a crime of some kind, then the FBI would be derelict in its duty not to get a search warrant. 

This needs to be the start of a new era, in which no president is above the law. It cannot just be a partisan witch hunt against a former President that Joe Biden does not like. 

And it is really interesting that Senator Josh Hawley, who doubtless helped lead the “lock her up” chants in 2016, is now portraying Mr. Trump as the victim. That’s the whole problem. For partisans like Mr. Hawley, if it is Hillary Clinton who is the subject, she should be locked up because she is a Democrat and he is a Republican. But if the FBI does the same thing to Donald Trump, then he is a victim.

Mr. Hawley actually calls for the Attorney General, Merrick Garland, to be impeached over this warrant and for FBI Director Christopher Wray to be fired. The problem is that impeachment is reserved for high crimes and misdemeanors. For Congress to impeach Mr. Garland, we need a set of high crimes and misdemeanors, and they must be convincing enough to get two thirds of US Senators to go along. They cannot just be based on partisan bickering.


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