One of the things that really gets my goat – and both angers and frustrates the American people – is the way that the powerful and politically elite get away with committing crimes that would land the rest of us in jail.
Case in point, Joe Biden clearly benefitted from Hunter Biden’s dubious business dealings, selling access to his office to the highest bidder. But will Sleepy Joe be held accountable for his shady and treasonous behavior? Time will tell. However, if the past is truly prologue, probably not.
Exhibit A – In 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ignored numerous pleas from Ambassador Christopher Stevens for additional security at the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya. As a result, when attacks were launched against the consulate and a nearby CIA annex, Ambassador Stevens was killed along with Sean Smith, a U.S. Foreign Service officer, and two CIA contractors.
It was later revealed that local rescue teams were ordered to “stand down” multiple times before finally responding and that the State and Defense Departments opted not to send air support, located just three hours away. Instead, the undersized annex security force fought bravely for almost eight hours before two men – former Navy Seals – were killed by a mortar attack.
The U.S. House of Representatives conducted a two-year investigation into the matter, but no one was formally reprimanded, let alone charged with dereliction of duty.
Exhibit B – In direct violation of State Department policy and federal law, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton established a private server in her Chappaqua, New York home and later, at an unsecured location in Colorado. She also used an unsecured BlackBerry to send and receive classified government emails.
When these violations of national security protocol were revealed, Congress subpoenaed more than 30,000 emails that Secretary Clinton had previously refused to turn over, claiming that they were private. It was then discovered that those 31,830 emails had been purposefully deleted using BleachBit. Of the previously recovered emails, 110 were found to have been marked “Classified,” 65 were marked “Secret,” and 20 were marked “Top Secret,” making one wonder what was contained in the illegally deleted emails.
Despite these startling revelations, FBI Director James Comey decided not to prosecute Secretary Clinton and, after a lengthy congressional investigation, no charges were brought against her.
Closer to home, Exhibit C… in both my 2008 and 2010 congressional campaigns I uncovered massive violations of federal election law by my opponent, Rep. Rob Andrews. Reviewing his FEC reports, I discovered that Rep. Andrews had misused campaign monies to fund family vacations in Ocean City, NJ and Edinborough, Scotland; and to pay for multiple trips to California to promote his daughter’s nascent singing career (including limousine rides, stays at the Beverly Hills Hilton, and meals at 5-star restaurants).
Andrews even stooped so low as to charge his campaign for a Valentines Day dinner with his wife and a Mother’s Day meal with his wife and mother. He also made large donations from his campaign war chest to the Forrest Theater in Philadelphia, where his wife was a board member. Shortly thereafter, his daughter not-so-coincidentally landed a speaking part in a professional production at the theater. Andrews also managed to secure a $600,000 federal grant for the Rutgers University Law School’s Admissions Department, which was headed by his wife.
None of these clear election finance violations were investigated, let alone reported by the local media. Finally, several years later, a Washington D.C. based watchdog group named Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington looked into the matter. CREW, which had previously named Andrews one of the 10 Most Corrupt Members of Congress, found such egregious violations that they referred the matter to the House Ethics Committee. When the committee agreed to launch a full-scale investigation, Andrews conveniently resigned – rather than risk being censured or expelled – to take a lucrative position with a Philadelphia-based law firm.
As you may have guessed, the investigation was subsequently dropped, and no charges were ever filed nor was Andrews forced to pay restitution.
It is no wonder that my fellow Americans and I are fit to be tied with the double standard of justice… or lack thereof… in our country today. Hopefully and prayerfully, that will start to change with a Republican majority in the House and Rep. Jim Jordan, a tenacious truth-seeker, leading the investigations.
Now more than ever, we desperately need people with grit, integrity, and a bulldog mentality to ensure that those who have violated their oaths of office are held accountable and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Let’s bring down the hammer and put these criminals behind bars where they belong.
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Dale Glading is an ordained minister and former N.J. Republican candidate for Congress.
