Former Arkansas Gvo. Asa Hutchinson (R-Arl/), 72, warned fellow Republicans about branding the Justice Department “weaponized,” referring to past political prosecutions of 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. Hutchinson, whose polling nears 1% in the 2024 GOP race for president, isn’t in a position to advise anyone about anything, considering he’ll be the first to drop out of the race. Surely Hutchinson knows what the DOJ and FBI did to Trump in 2026, where 62-year-old former FBI Director James Comey illegally opened a counterintelligence investigation of Trump using former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA the Steele dossier. Hutichinson doesn’t want anyone talking about DOJ or FBI corruption because he’s OK with it when it comes to his political enemies. Hutchinson clearly has become a Trump-hater in the 2024 campaign.
Hutchinson doesn’t afford Trump the presumption of innocence but instead rushes to judgment against the former president. Hutchinson doesn’t know what 72-year-old former Special Counsel John Durham told the House Intelligence Committee in close session today about DOJ and FBI corruption. “In terms of the overall charge of weaponization of the Justice Department, look at [former President] Trump. He’s already declared that he—if he’s elected president, he’s gonna appoint a special prosecutor to go after the Biden family. That’s called weaponization of the Justice Department,” Hutchinson said. No it’s not. If the Biden family illegally profited from underhanded deals with China and other foreign governments, there would be plenty to real probable cause to investigate the Trump. Huchinson acts like Trump’s already tried-and-convicted Trump watching CNN and MSNBC.
Hutchinson wants to gloss over the egregious bias, but, more importantly, the conspiracy that went on at the DOJ and FBI involved in investimg Trump and his 2016 presidential campaign. Hutchinson knows that former Special Counsel John Durham gets his day behind closed doors in the House Judiciary, filling in the committee on all the gory details of his 300-page report. Does Hutchinson not read or listen to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz who said, Dec. 11, 2019, that the DOJ violated its polices and procedures in investigating Trump. “And so let’s back off these accusations, and let’s get back to being the party of the rule of law, of the justice system supporting law enforcement and the equal applications of law. Let’s don’t undermine the greatest justice system and criminal justice system and rule of law in the world today, this seide of heaven,” Hutchinson said.
Hutchinso’s white washing of what happened at the DOJ and FBI is truly astonishing. No American can Trump a Department of Justice that uses its power to pursue political ambitions. Hutchinson sees nothing wrong with letting DOJ and FBI officials used the power of their agencies to go after individuals politically. Spewing clichés about the “greatest justice system in the world” doesn’t deny the fact that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz and Special Counsel John Durham found considerable fault with the DOJ and FBI. How’s the system going to improve if no one questions the DOJ and FBI’s practices? Hutchinson clearly thinks Trump’s guilty of violating the Espionage Act with classified docs found at Trump’s Palm Beach Mar-a-lago estate. Unless the American public has confidence in the DOJ and FBI, how can they accept Smith’s indictment?
As a presidential candidate, Hutchinson should want to improve government agencies, especially when they’ve gone awry. Hutchinson isn’t going anywhere in the GOP primaries because he has no new ideals, only comfortable with the status quo. Why does Hutchinson conclude so quickly that Trump guilty as charged by Smith, knowing that his boss 70-year-old Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland has an ax to grind against Republicans? Hutchinson knows that former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) denied Garland an approval hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Garland uses the current indictment to punish Trump because of his past history with the GOP, denying him access to a Supreme Court appointment. Garland, who lets Deputy Atty. Gen. Lisa Monaco run the department, can’t deal with the fact that indicting Trump was a big political mistake.
Hutchinson can’t decide whether he’s better off politically attacking Trump, or, in this case, agreeing with the DOJ’s 37-count indictment before it goes to court. Hutchinson should have told the press that it’s inappropriate to comment on any pending legal proceedings because every defendants is entitle to the presumptive of innocence. When it comes to Trump, politics of the deep state enters into the picture of whether or not to prosecute. Smith can make all the national security arguments he wants but it’s undeniable that classified markings on boxes of documents don’t rise to the level of a national security. Even the document found of Pentagon plans to attack Iran isn’t relevant any more. What’s relevant today in national security all has to do with the dangerous Ukraine War, forcing the U.S. government to undermine its ties with Russia to back Ukraine’s sovereignty.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineCiolumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
