Obama, Clinton, DOJ and the IRS: Are We More Corrupt Than Russia?

Obama, Clinton, DOJ and the IRS: Are We More Corrupt Than Russia?

The Stream - Sunday October 30, 2016

by Michael Brown

Imagine this scenario if you will. The government decides to crack down on a shady internet company, subpoenaing all their computer data. Within minutes, at the direction of the CEO, one employee begins deleting thousands of documents while other employees begin to destroy their computers, cell phones, and tablets, using hammers and fists and feet. Then, when called on to testify for their actions, the CEO responds dozens of times with, "I don't remember," while the employees who deleted data and destroyed their hardware are granted immunity and/or plead the fifth. Then, when a government official is suspected of being in collusion with this shady company, that official also pleads the fifth.

"What corruption!" you say, and rightly so. "What an outrageous cover-up! Obviously, this company is going to get nailed to the wall by the law. Their actions and words testify loudly to their guilt."

Of course, I fully agree, but what makes this scenario even more outrageous is that the players involved are a presidential candidate (and former Secretary of State), Hillary Clinton, a number of her key employees, the current Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, and possibly even the President of the United States, Barack Obama.

And let's not forget the corrupt activities of the IRS, also in apparent collusion with the Obama administration. (Remember that this deleted email syndrome, along with the custom of pleading the fifth, goes back to Lois Lerner of IRS infamy, she who stonewalled conservative organizations seeking IRS approval.)

Here's a brief summary of the most glaring examples of corruption and cover-up in the Obama-Hillary era (and I won't even get into Benghazi here, since that would take us too far afield):

When Lois Lerner was ordered to produce her emails, somehow, they had gone missing -- mysteriously scrubbed -- and when called on to answer direct questions by Congress, she refused, pleading the fifth Amendment. She was even held in contempt of Congress. Not to be outdone, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen (and Lois Lerner's boss) was almost impeached by Congress for his misdeeds and non-cooperation (can one be impeached for arrogance?), and the evidence against the IRS continues to mount, all in apparent collusion with the Obama administration. Moving on to Hillary Clinton, her "extremely careless" actions (to quote FBI Director James Comey) occurred while she was Secretary of State, and it was only after her emails were subpoenaed by the FBI that she deleted 33,000 of them. (She claims they were deleted previously, but the evidence contradicts that.) This alone is unimaginable. When interviewed by the FBI about using a private server for government emails, she repeatedly stated that she didn't remember certain critical details, pointing to a head injury as the cause. (Why plead the fifth when your memory fails you, perhaps legitimately?) In June, when Bryan Pagliano, a former Hillary staffer involved with her emails, was deposed to testify by a conservative advocacy group, he pleaded the fifth no less than 125 times. (And this was after he had been granted immunity!) In September, when Hillary staffers Paul Combetta and Bill Thornton appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to testify about their involvement in the email scandal, they too pleaded the fifth. (Why not? It seems to be the thing to do.) As to the physical destruction of some of Hillary's cell phones by her staff, "CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin was so surprisedto learn that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's aides destroyed her phones with a hammer, she literally couldn't believe it." This is saying a lot when a CNN correspondent is shocked by the actions of the Clintons. When Congressman Trey Gowdy questionedJames Comey over his failure to indict Hillary over the email scandal, Comey's answers only exposed the absurdity of his failure to indict. Is it any surprise that agents within the FBI were allegedly "disgusted" over Comey's decision not to indict? (Could it be that Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch were not just talking about grandchildren when they held their famous, clandestine meeting on the plane?) And speaking of Loretta Lynch, when called on this past week to testify about America's secret (ransom?) payments to Iran, she refused to comply, also pleading the fifth. In response, senators Marco Rubio and Mike Pompeo stated, "As the United States' chief law enforcement officer, it is outrageous that you would essentially plead the fifth and refuse to respond to inquiries." Finally, returning to our president, there is growing evidence that he was aware that Hillary was using a private email server for government correspondence and that he himself wrote to her using her private e-address.

It is, then, little wonder that only 26 percent of my Twitter followers who responded to a poll felt that we were "way better" than Russia when it came to "government corruption and media collusion," while a whopping 74 percent of those responding felt that America was "about the same" as or "even worse" than Russia in these ways (respectively, 51 percent and 23 percent).

Of course, the vast majority of those responding to my poll have, presumably, never lived in Russia, so we really don't know how valid their viewpoints are. But in light of the most recent, shocking email developments, virtually forcing James Comey to re-open his Hillary investigation just days before the election, one senses that we have only seen the tip of the iceberg -- and what a filthy iceberg it is.

May God bring everything to light, and may He grant us mercy and repentance. The mess seems ready to hit the fan.

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