America’s Two-Tiered Justice System Has Got to Go

Just imagine if you or I received a subpoena from the House Oversight Committee, demanding that we appear before them to answer questions about a case it was investigating, and we failed to show up. How do you think the committee would respond?

In the past, Attorneys General Eric Holder, William Barr, and Merrick Garland – supposedly the nation’s top law enforcement officers – all failed to appear before Congress when subpoenaed and each was found in contempt. Of course, nothing came of any of those cases because Congress chose not to prosecute.

Perhaps emboldened by such recent precedents, former president Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton failed to show up this week for their scheduled testimony before the House Oversight Committee. President Clinton offered to meet privately and off the record with committee chairman James Comer (R-KY), but Mr. Comer categorically declined that pathetic offer. Meanwhile, Mrs. Clinton simply ignored the subpoena, figuring that if she wasn’t prosecuted for maintaining classified government records on a private server and then destroying more than 30,000 subpoenaed emails as well as the computers that contained them, she could get away with anything.

And so far, she has.

So has Bill. Among the crimes he has been accused of – and in the case of perjury before a grand jury, convicted of – are sexual assault, rape, and the misuse of charitable funds for private use (see the Clinton Foundation).

I know all about politicians getting away with using other people’s money to feather their own nest, because I ran for Congress against an absolute thief in 2008 and 2010. Despite catching him with his grubby hands in the cookie jar – using campaign monies for family vacations to Edinburgh, Scotland and Ocean City, NJ as well as to fund his daughter’s aspiring show business career – the press turned a blind eye to his thievery. Until, that is, a watchdog group in Washington D.C. filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the House Ethics Committee found enough evidence to launch a full-scale investigation. Rather than face possible censure or expulsion, my two-time opponent took the coward’s way out and resigned in disgrace, citing a “too good to pass up” opportunity to join a prominent Philadelphia law firm.

And so, another slick and sleezy politician avoided prosecution for crimes that you or I would have gone to prison for.

Have you had enough of such legal double standards? I know that I have!

Ask yourself the following question: When was the last time an elected official went to prison for doing something illegal and immoral? Sen. Bob Menendez is an exception to the rule, only because he was stupid or arrogant enough to keep $480,000 in cash and more than $100,000 worth of gold bars stashed throughout his house. “Gold Bar” Bob was also found guilty of taking other bribes such as designer watches and Formula One tickets. Convicted on all charges – including bribery, extortion, honest services fraud, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy – Menendez is currently serving his 11-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Complex in Allenwood, PA.

By the way, I have played softball and shared my faith at FCI Allenwood Low many times during my 35-year prison ministry career as well as at the adjacent medium-security FCI Allenwood Medium and the maximum-security USP Allenwood… and it’s not exactly “hard time” that Menendez is serving there. In fact, the recreation facilities are better than some community colleges.

My guess is that if you or I had accepted the kind of bribes Sen. Menendez did in exchange for peddling influence and divulging “sensitive U.S. Government information” to a foreign country, we would be placed in shackles in some hole-in-the-wall institution with a paper-thin mattress, primitive plumbing, and cafeteria food that a starving man wouldn’t eat.

Folks, it’s time for Lady Justice to put her blindfold back on and start treating every citizen the same. No more special treatment for politicians and powerbrokers. No more slaps on the wrist for Wall Street investors and corporate executives. And no more turning a blind eye to elitists from Washington D.C. to Hollywood, CA.

We, the people, have had E-N-O-U-G-H!