If the DOJ wants to win a case, it'll have to indict Trump
The sandwich guy walks free, and James Comey is soon to follow
By Sam Bellamy
If Republicans had a lick of courage or common sense, they’d already be demanding major changes to the humiliatingly awful amateur hour show underway at the U.S. Justice Department, where prosecutions are rife with incompetence and abuse of the rule of law.
This week, we were treated to the buffoonish spectacle of our government trying once more to incarcerate the notorious Sean C. Dunn – a man Attorney General Pam Bondi would have us believe is a fiendish Deep State operative specially trained by the George Soros organization to chuck sandwiches at unsuspecting law enforcement officers.
On Thursday, a jury in Washington D.C. found Dunn, better known as “the sandwich guy,” not guilty of what illustrious U.S. Attorney and ex-Fox News host Jeanine Pirro called “throwing a sandwich at a federal officer at point-blank range.”
The incident this summer outside a Subway shop in northwest D.C. – and subsequent idiotic statements from Bondi, Pirro and others – drew laughter worldwide. Even fellow officers of the “victim” – a Customs and Border Patrol agent assigned to the city as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on crime – thought it was hilarious and festooned him with gag gifts.
The officer, Gregory Lairmore, seems to be experiencing some sort of casual fast food post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he felt the impact of the salami sub through his bulletproof vest.
“The sandwich kind of exploded all over my uniform,” he testified. “It smelled of onions and mustard.”
Even more chilling, maybe: “I had mustard and condiments on my uniform, and an onion hanging from my radio antenna that night.”
Dunn faced up to a year in jail, fines and probation if he’d been convicted. But jury apparently didn’t agree that the charge matched the offense. Earlier, a grand jury had rejected Pirro’s Inspector Javertish attempt to indict him on a felony charge.
“I’m relieved, and I’m looking forward to moving on with my life,” Dunn told The Washington Post and other news outlets after the verdict was read. He was fired from his job as a paralegal at the Justice Department following his arrest.
Former FBI James Comey would like to get back to his life, too.
On Wednesday, a federal judge blasted U.S. Attorney General Lindsey Halligan – a former beauty queen, insurance company attorney and personal lawyer for Trump – for a “indict first, investigate second” approach to the case against Comey.
Our government, you’ll no doubt recall, brought charges against Comey after Trump sent a late-night tweet to Bondi huffily demanding that she secure indictment against Comey and other arch enemies of the president’s League of Injustice. It was later confirmed that Trump meant to send the demand as a private message, not for the world to see.
If Trump’s rants about Comey’s alleged criminal behavior aren’t enough to get Halligan’s flimsy indictment tossed out on grounds that it’s a vindictive prosecution, the scant evidence of wrongdoing by Comey will. Halligan’s predecessor had said there wasn’t enough to justify an indictment – prompting Trump to fire him and send in someone he apparently thought would look pretty on his TV set.
Comey’s case isn’t the only one in trouble. Trump’s ham-handed attempts to subvert the Senate confirmation process and push unqualified, underqualified or divisive choices into U.S. Attorney’s offices is backfiring, with multiple legal challenges of the appointments queuing up for judicial review. Those challenges place Trump’s vengeance campaign in jeopardy.
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans used to be sticklers for the rule of law. They’ve abandoned that, of course – along with their souls – to their orange lord and savior.
Tuesday’s elections followed a longtime pattern of backlash by voters against whichever political party they’d put into power in the last elections.
But the forcefulness of the change this time should – but probably won’t – be enough to make GOP lawmakers to see it’s self-destructive to continue to bow to Trump. He’s a lame duck, fading fast in polls and increasingly incoherent and erratic.
If Republicans don’t wake up before next year’s midterm congressional elections, they’re going to experience a hell of a lot worse than onions hanging from their car radio antenna. And, like Dunn, they’ll have to find a new job.