Lost all credibility

Hidden among his condemnations of allegedly Republican-inspired events, Sherwin Pomerantz briefly mentions a law enforcement action of which he appears to approve – the FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida home (“Can America save itself?” August 15).

Equal justice under the law is a bedrock principle of American democracy. Three cases evince the FBI’s violation of this principle:

Hillary Clinton admitted destroying 30,000 documents under congressional subpoena. Of the documents that were recovered, many were classified “top secret.” There was no raid on her residence, nor did the FBI seize her private server on which the classified documents were allegedly stored illegally. She was never prosecuted.

President Obama took over 30 million pages of documents when he left office; certainly some of them were classified. There has been no demand for their return. No armed FBI agents raided his home.

The infamous Hunter Biden computer contains evidence of wide-ranging criminal activity. Two years after it first surfaced, there still have been no search warrant, no indictment, and no interest in pursuing any investigation of his father, the sitting president.

According to Attorney-General Merrick Garland, rather than a search, the Department of Justice uses “less intrusive means” where possible, and “narrowly scopes” any search. President Trump fully complied with an earlier subpoena, and offered to provide any further help if needed. Rather than request that help, an armed phalanx of FBI agents invaded Trump’s home. As to “narrow scope,” their warrant allowed seizure of “any government and/or presidential records created [during President Trump’s entire term in office].”

Some argue that the search was to recover classified documents. As the ultimate classification authority, the president could declassify any documents up to the moment he left office. No government agency has the power to question or overrule the president’s classification determinations.

The FBI lost all credibility or claim of impartiality long ago. Regarding Trump, the agency has a documented history of manufacturing evidence, lying to a federal judge to gain a warrant, and widely publicized armed arrests followed by unprecedented prosecutions of Trump advisers, while at the same time hiding information potentially embarrassing to certain people in power.

Unless and until there is proof that this show of force was justified, other objectives of the raid seem likely. It was a fishing expedition meant to create an illusion of criminality sullying a formidable 2024 presidential candidate. The breadth of the search suggests that the agents sought any documents that might be used as evidence of crimes identified in the future.

Just as importantly, the entrenched leadership class sought to intimidate supporters of the one man they fear most. Their threat: If we can do it to him, we can – and will – do it to you.

EFRAIM COHEN Zichron Ya’acov