OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Aside from rioting, lawfare is one of the Democrats’ favorite weapons against their political enemies.
When police made mistakes, or deemed their lives or others were in danger, and killed criminals, the left was incensed, only if the criminal was a certain color, of course.
Protests would be staged, which inevitably would turn into riots. Looting would sometimes follow. Cities would burn. Moves to denigrate the police and defund departments followed. The left set out to ruin the lives of police officers.
They do the same with lawfare, except the “ruining” of their enemies takes place in court.
One of the Democrats’ biggest legal attack dogs is New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
James went after the organization We Build the Wall last year. The non-profit raised funds and built border walls in New Mexico and Texas in 2019. Democrats didn’t like it, so they went after the founder, triple-amputee vet Brian Kolfage, and Steve Bannon who was brought in to help run the organization.
As Law & Crime reported last year:
The offices of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance (D) have allied to investigate Donald Trump’s onetime political strategist Steve Bannon for allegedly defrauding the former president’s supporters through We Build the Wall, the Washington Post reported Friday.
According to the report, multiple investigators in James’s office were “deputized to work as prosecutors” with Vance’s team as they continue to investigate Bannon’s role in the alleged money laundering conspiracy.
“The AG is working hand-in-hand with the DA’s office in leading this investigation,” a person said to be familiar with the investigation told the Post, adding that James had “been looking at Bannon for a while.”
Bannon and three other men were arrested by federal authorities last year for allegedly engaging in a money laundering scheme that diverted private donor money – ostensibly raised to build a private wall along the U.S.-Mexico border – to line the pockets of Bannon and his other We Build the Wall co-founders Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea. All four men have denied any wrongdoing.
Kolfage initially said he would not be paid for his work with the organization. Later, after putting in a lot of time on the project, it was decided he would be compensated, well within the normal standards for a person running a non-profit. He wasn’t “enriching” himself as the Democrat feds put it. He was just being paid for his work.
An amazing border wall was built in Sunland Park, New Mexico, and a second one was partially funded by WBTW. A third wall was about to be built by the organization when Kolfage and Bannon were arrested. The vast majority of those who donated were 100% fine with Kolfage receiving compensation for his work. As for Bannon, his net worth is estimated at $48 million so he hardly had a reason to grab a few hundred thousand from WBTW, although he was working, so there is nothing wrong with receiving compensation for it.
A court case in which We Build the Wall defendant Timothy Shea was being prosecuted ended up with a hung jury last week.
One of the jurists said it was a political witchhunt.
Republic Brief reported:
The male juror at issue has also accused the others on the jury — six women and five other men — of being “liberals” who brought the “hangman’s noose” to court with them, according to the note.
The male juror has stated the criminal case against Shea is a “government witch hunt” rife with “political bias,” according to the note.
The note also said the male juror has stated he thinks the case was brought in Manhattan because the feds know “people here vote differently.”
For James and Democrats, it wasn’t about Kolfage and Bannon being compensated for their work, it was about going after their enemies who were doing a job they didn’t want to be done. That is, building border walls. Imagine if non-profits continued to build border walls and sealed up most of the southern border. The Democrats’ plan to open the borders and flood the country with illegal immigrants like they are now would have been thwarted. They couldn’t have that so they went after them for minor details.
Now James is doing the same to former President Trump.
As the Daily Mail is reporting:
New York State Attorney General Letitia James jumped on ‘disturbing’ revelations from Monday’s second House January 6th committee hearing – suggesting she will use her office to pursue new information.
‘The new details revealed tonight related to January 6 are disturbing,’ the AG tweeted Monday night, after the panel followed up its prime time hearing from last week.
‘It’s my duty to investigate allegations of fraud or potential misconduct in New York. This incident is no exception,’ she said.
The panel said its investigators found Trump raised $250 million for his election ‘defense’ fund, but just a tiny fraction went to actually fighting to raise election claims in court.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a committee member who also served as an impeachment manager, called it the ‘big rip-off’ of small donors who contributed.
‘The Trump campaign used these false claims of election fraud to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from supporters who were told their donations were for the legal fight in the courts. But the Trump campaign didn’t use the money for that.’
Lofgren said most of the funds went to Trump’s new Save America PAC, along with other pro-Trump groups and allies.
A big tell that this is politically motivated just like the attack on We Build the Wall?
Lofgren stopped short of saying the fundraising was illegal. ‘I’m not saying it’s a crime, but I think it’s a grift,’ she said.
Lofgren admitted it wasn’t illegal to raise money for one thing and then spend it on something else.
James and the Democrats went after We Build the Wall for the same thing. They raised money for a wall, said the money would only be used for a wall, but ended up compensating those who actually did the work.
The Mail continued, “Trump has repeatedly attacked James’ existing probe as a ‘witch hunt.’”
In the WBTW case, prosecutors were having a hard time proving their case against Shea, as well.
A jury note revealed that: “Political rifts aside, jurors may be struggling to find agreement on prosecutors’ theory that Shea sought to obstruct the investigation into the wall fund by backdating a contract.”
The prosecutors were blasting a shotgun looking for anything that would stick because they didn’t have a case against those running We Build the Wall. It was a political witchhunt just like James’ new investigation of Trump’s fundraising.
Source: The Republic Brief