The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) began with the Judiciary ACT of 1789 which created a one man, part time Attorney General. It obviously has been changed many times since then and expanded to the point that it is now a huge government bureaucracy. Like all government bureaucracies its actions have been influenced at times by political ideology. However, I am not aware of it being referred to as the “Department of Injustice” until recent years. There has been a lot written and reported about the Department over the years including a book titled, “Injustice” by a former career DOJ attorney, J. Christopher Adams. In the book he documents how completely the DOJ became a partisan department under President Obama.
As I read about the DOJ under Eric Holder over the last few years I began to wonder how it became so politically and ideologically driven so quickly. As I researched the subject I discovered why it was able to become such an effective tool for the Obama Administration so quickly. It was because Bill Clinton staffed it with leadership and a deep base of left leaning ideologues during his two terms in office. He did that so he could use the DOJ to push his personal and political agenda items. Bill just did not do that as blatantly as President Obama has. I wrote about one way President Clinton did this last week in my article “I Am Going to Put My Husband In Charge of the Economy”. In that article I detail specifically how President Clinton used the DOJ to push his home ownership agenda and earn the DOJ its first references as the “Department of Injustice”. In addition to creating the housing bubble through new CRA rules, enforced by the DOJ, there were also the questionable last minute pardons that Eric Holder, the Assistant Attorney General at the time, wrote up and processed for President Clinton.
In addition to making sure the DOJ was staffed with as many partisan attorneys as he could during his two terms in office, President Clinton also authorized a big hiring push late in his second term. Most of these people managed to stay with the DOJ during President Bush’s two terms because it is practically impossible to fire a U.S. Government employee. Additionally the Bush Administration had to deal with 9/11 happening only 7 months and 21 days after he was sworn in as President. Plus the long term effects of that tragedy as well as the long term effects on the U.S. economy of the “housing bubble bust”. Some of the Left leaning Ideologues that did leave the DOJ during the Bush Administration quickly returned when President Obama was sworn in and Eric Holder was appointed as the Attorney General. In addition to the Left leaning Ideologues that the new AG inherited, he immediately began to replace as many of the non-partisan career attorneys who worked there as he could with people that he could count on to go along with his and President Obama’s efforts to “fundamentally change America”. This effort to replace people who he could not count on to be partisan especially applied to people in positions of authority. Non-partisan people that they could not immediately push out or replace were subjected to intimidation and harassment by other employees and supervisors.
With the appointment of Eric Holder as the (AG) the enforcement of President Obama’s agenda items took off immediately and with an absolute indifference to the rule of law the DOJ is sworn to enforce and protect. This management ideology did not change with the appointment of Loretta Lynch to replace Eric Holder. She proved that recently when she testified before Congress about the DOJ’s plans to try to silence “climate change deniers” by bringing charges against them using the Federal RICO statues! This is a deliberate attack on the 1st Amendment.
One of Eric Holder’s first specific, agenda driven acts as AG was to throw out the voter intimidation convictions against the Philadelphia Black Panthers. A veteran civil rights attorney who witnessed their blatant acts of intimidation outside a Philadelphia polling location stated on the record that it was the worst case of voter intimidation he had seen in his career. This act alone indicated how agenda driven this administration was going to be.
And then they moved on to much bigger partisan agenda items! Two of these were “Fast and Furious” and the IRS targeting of non-profit conservative groups. “Fast and Furious” was intended to set up an opportunity to take the first steps to destroy the 2nd Amendment and the IRS targeting of conservative non-profit groups (an attack on the 1st Amendment) dramatically influenced voting efforts during the 2012 elections. Both of these were orchestrated and covered up at the highest levels of the Obama Administration, especially at the DOJ. Eric Holder repeatedly lied to Congress about both, changed his “story” on multiple occasions and refused to turn over relevant documents. In fact he was so arrogant and dishonest in his interactions with Congress that he was charged with contempt (which had no effect on him since he is the chief law enforcement officer in America), and President Obama attempted to protect him and various records about these DOJ activities with “executive orders” (which have been ruled illegal).
Operation “Choke Point” was another DOJ operation that was launched secretly using bank regulators to try and force banks to refuse to do business with industries the DOJ did not like. Firearm, coal and precious metals businesses were their specific targets. The effort was intended to shut down these industries by denying them banking services. More agenda driven attacks on the 1st and 2nd Amendments!
Another way this administration uses the DOJ to push their favorite agenda items is to quietly encourage special interest groups to file suit against various government agencies over rules or regulations they do not like. This allows the DOJ to enter into financial “settlements” with the special interest groups who brought the suits and for the agencies to re-write the rules or regulations in question to fit the Obama Administration’s agenda (without consulting Congress). Clearly the Obama Administration does not see a need for our Republic’s system of government with a Constitution and, the 3 coexisting branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial.
The examples listed above are only a few of the constant stream of partisan, and in most cases illegal actions coming out of the Obama DOJ. In fact the DOJ has been so flagrant and dishonest in its partisan and agenda driven actions that a district court judge in Texas recently issued an order that said, The Obama administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) is “unethical” and “intentionally deceptive”. He found the DOJ attorneys to be so dishonest that he also ordered the DOJ to establish annual “Ethics Training” programs. This is not the only time this DOJ has lost cases or been reprimanded for sloppy or dishonest activities.
The only way to stop this calculated and deliberate destruction of our Constitution is to change which party occupies the Whitehouse in November!
Tags: DOJ
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