OPINION:
In the last two weeks, the lawlessness and corruption of the left has largely been ignored by the mainstream media in favor of parroting the latest (real or contrived) scandal of Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Blockbuster reports — ranging from an inspector general letter detailing how Barack Obama’s White House politically targeted and punished his enemies, to a Government Accountability Office report that found the administration’s been illegally funding Obamacare — never seemed to reach the fever pitch of Mr. Trump’s tax returns or perceived fat-shaming.
While felons were being given the right to vote from their jail cells in California, new details emerged on the sweetheart deal the Department of Justice gave to Hillary Clinton’s staff during its investigation into her email server. Those stories never got broadcast news’ nightly attention.
Below is a list (by no means comprehensive) of the left’s discreditable behavior in the last two weeks alone, that generated little to no national outrage.
California governor signs bill to allow thousands of convicted felons to vote (Sept. 28).
Gov. Jerry Brown, despite widespread opposition from law enforcement, signed a bill into law that will allow convicted felons to vote in California elections while still behind bars.
GAO finds White House illegally funding unpopular and failing Obamacare (Sept. 29).
The government’s non-partisan watchdog ruled the Obama administration’s diversion of billions of dollars from the U.S. Treasury to insurers selling individual policies on its healthcare exchange was in violation of federal law, and specifically against the will of Congress. The agency’s conclusion reaffirmed an earlier ruling by the Congressional Research Service.
Government Services Administration IG finds administration targets political enemies (Sept. 29).
Political operatives within the Obama administration wrongly punished conservative legal group Judicial Watch, stripping it of “media” status and tried to force it to pay higher fees for its open records requests, the GSA’s IG found.
The New York Times publishes Mr. Trump’s tax returns without his consent (Oct. 1).
Federal law clearly states it’s illegal publish someone’s tax returns without authorization, but that didn’t deter the Grey Lady. A mere two weeks ago, the paper’s executive editor Dean Baquet stated he would risk jail time to obtain Mr. Trump’s tax records because Mr. Trump’s “whole campaign is built on his success as a businessman and his wealth.”
The New York Daily News also unanimously received Mr. Trump’s tax returns but decided not to run with the story.
The New York attorney general abuses prosecutorial authority to attack Mr. Trump (Oct. 3).
Eric Schneiderman ordered the Donald Trump Foundation a cease-and-desist order one month before the general election. Mr. Schneiderman’s endorsed Mrs. Clinton and sits on her campaign’s New York leadership council. He’s given no indication he’ll recuse himself from the case, or even that there’s any conflict-of-interest. Mr. Schneiderman hasn’t opened an investigation into the Clinton Foundation despite a Scripps News Investigation finding it ignored state law related to disclosing foreign donors.
DOJ ’side agreements’ allowed Clinton allies to destroy laptops (Oct. 3).
House Republicans demanded to know why the DOJ entered into a pair of side-agreements with two of Mrs. Clinton’s top former aides who went on to become her personal attorneys during the FBI’s investigation into her email server. The agreement allowed FBI agents to destroy the aides’ computers after searching the hard drives for evidence. It’s bewildering why the FBI — in an investigation about destroyed evidence — would then agree to destroy evidence, if it wasn’t trying to protect Mrs. Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton created a “foreign affairs” board while she was at the State Department and filled 60 percent of its spots with donors (Oct. 4).
A Washington Examiner report found Mrs. Clinton created and padded a so-called Foreign Affairs Advisory Board during her time as secretary of State with special interests. The board had 15 individuals appointed to it that had donated personally to the Clinton Foundation and her political campaigns, or were affiliated with groups that had — fitting her pattern of preferential treatment for donors, the Examiner explained.
Mr. Obama’s VA continues to be plagued with inefficiencies, 200 die waiting for care (Oct. 4).
The Phoenix Veterans Affairs office is still imprudently canceling veterans’ appointments, and has built up a new backlog of cases, two years after the facility was at the center of a scandal for improper care. At least one veteran is likely dead because of it, and more than 200 veterans died while waiting for appointments in 2015, the department’s IG said in a report.
A federal judge refused to release drafts of Mrs. Clinton’s Whitewater indictment (Oct. 4).
A federal judge rejected Judicial Watch’s lawsuit calling for the release of drafts of a criminal indictment of Mrs. Clinton that was prepared by prosecutors but never issued during the Whitewater investigation in the 1990s, ruling her “substantial privacy interest,” outweighed the public interest in disclosure. Wonder if the judge would’ve felt the same way about Mr. Trump’s tax releases — I’m betting not.
So the federal government’s aiding and abetting for Mrs. Clinton continues — it’s all in a week’s work.
• Kelly Riddell is a columnist for The Washington Times.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.