The bullies on the left's search for a crime

Keven Brock:

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Within the Bill of Rights, the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments place particular restrictions on the government’s ability to investigate an individual and charge a crime. They were designed to remove the temptation to use the power of government out of curiosity, or differing ideologies, or revenge, or some other caprice.

In other words, the government has no hunting license. It may not proceed with all of its power just to see what it can find. These amendments demand an articulation of just cause, based on established law, before the government can investigate and charge, arrest, seize, convict and imprison.

In addition, implicit in these amendments is that when the government cannot meet the thresholds required in order to take action, it must remain silent. The reasoning is sound: Mere suspicion should not lead to reputational damage if the government cannot clear the high bar needed to charge wrongdoing. This is why the FBI habitually does not confirm or deny the existence of any investigation until public charges are filed. It is to protect the potentially innocent from unjust stigma.

When the government is not able to use its powers legally, it cannot then become a bully, out of seeming frustration, to intimidate the uncharged or to sway public opinion. Sadly, we’re seeing increasing examples of such tactics.

On July 5, 2016, then-FBI Director James Comey ascribed to himself certain authorities he did not possess and held a press conference to publicly decline the charging and prosecution of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information.

But he didn’t stop there. He then recited a litany of things he believed she had done wrong. Without charging her, Comey had no right — while acting in his official capacity — to publicly disparage her, whether what he was saying was true or not. It was government abuse of an American citizen.

On March 20, 2017, continuing his inability to remain appropriately silent, Comey took the unprecedented step of publicly disclosing, during congressional testimony, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Never before had an FBI director taken such a step to endanger the reputations of American citizens who, at that point, were merely under suspicion and, by Comey’s own admission, weak suspicion at that. He claimed an exception to FBI policy because of his imagined right of the American people to know.

In fact, his action was inimical to the constitutional interests and protections of the American people. It was an abuse of government authority and a cynical attempt to strong-arm a sitting president into not firing him lest the president look like he was obstructing a now publicly disclosed investigation into his activities.
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There is more.

We are seeing the same abuse of power by the Democrats in Congress who are demanding production of Trump's taxes and his business records without probable cause.  The courts should reject these demands as unconstitutional.