By LV



When the Roman civil wars ended in 31 BC with the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, Augustus Caesar consolidated his power in Rome through the use of an elite guard called the Praetorians, whose sole duty was to protect the Emperor. The special military unit did so with devastating efficiency through the use of force or subterfuge to quell civil disturbances and political intrigues. The Praetorians were particularly adept at eliminating any perceived threat to their own power, which turned out to be their primary mission.

When the Roman Senate debated whether to restore the Republic after the lunatic Emperor Caligula was assassinated in 41 AD, the potential end of the Empire posed an existential threat to the Praetorians, so they took matters into their own hands. They found Caligula’s uncle, Claudius, cowering inside the palace and spirited him away to their stronghold. The guard then proclaimed Claudius the Emperor, cutting off any further debate in the Senate. A grateful Claudius showered rewards on the Praetorians for their special service. In effect, the Praetorians had become a power unto themselves, answerable to no one. As a result, they were despised by nobles and commoners alike.

And so it has come to pass that we have latter-day Praetorian guards in the guise of law enforcement authorities within the U.S. Department of Justice, including the FBI. Their job, as they perceive it, is to protect administration officials from being charged with criminal malfeasance due to scandalous behavior. By doing so, they earn the gratitude and, therefore, the favor of their superiors. It doesn’t get more despicable than that.

Here are several examples where the Praetorian principle was applied during the Obama administration:

Recently, we learned that former FBI Director, James Comey, wrote a draft of his exoneration of Hillary Clinton months before the FBI interviewed her and key witnesses concerning the mishandling of classified information and the destruction of subpoenaed evidence. Obviously, the fix was in and the FBI sought to cover it up.

Before the so-called Clinton email “matter,” we have former Attorney General, Eric Holder, exonerating Lois Lerner, an IRS Director, who pleaded the fifth in front of congress for singling out conservative groups when they applied for tax exempt status.

For over a year, the FBI stonewalled Freedom-of-Information-Act requests from Judicial Watch, a conservative non-partisan watchdog group, for FBI records concerning the infamous tarmac meeting between Bill Clinton and former Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. The FBI initially claimed it didn’t have any files on the subject. But, after a judge ordered the FBI to hand over the files, the FBI “found” the documents. To no one’s surprise, the records the FBI ultimately released were heavily redacted and barely decipherable.

The Hill just reported that FBI leaders, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Attorney General Holder knew since 2009 about Russia’s criminal involvement in the uranium deal approved by the Obama administration in 2010. The deal gave Russia, a hostile nuclear power, 20% of the U.S. uranium mining capacity. Coincidently, the deal resulted in the Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton scoring almost one hundred fifty million dollars in donations and speaking fees from grateful Russian interests. The same FBI leaders who knew about the shady Russian participation in the uranium deal, including Robert Mueller, Rod Rosenstein, and Andrew McCabe, are still pulling strings at the FBI and shielding themselves from the cover-ups they facilitated on behalf the Obama administration.

The pattern is the same. The Justice Department squelches what appears to be blatant scandals where laws were clearly broken by public officials. They do so by simply refusing to press criminal charges or cooperate with those seeking public records. And then they close ranks, making it almost impossible to hold them to account.

Bottom line: We have an out-of-control, unaccountable Justice Department, which aggressively impedes serious journalists and citizen advocacy groups from learning about their justice-obstructing activities while masquerading as our country’s top law enforcement officials…just like their ancient counterparts, the Roman Praetorian guards.

The Department of Justice and the FBI are tough with little people, who have no political clout. They show them no quarter. But when it comes to keeping well-connected politicians beyond the reach of the law, they are masterful. When it comes to protecting themselves, they are Olympic champions. They fend off pain-in-the-ass questions by the media and congress by simply saying the magic words, “It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on any ongoing investigation,” or by claiming that the FBI’s means and sources would be compromised if they divulged any details concerning the matter being questioned.

These half-ass punk politicians posing as law enforcement officials refuse to cooperate with FOIA requests until a court orders them to do so and then they deliver documents with whole sections blackened out, literally covering up a cover-up. They love to operate in the shadows because that’s where they do their best work. They treat us like mushrooms: they keep us in the dark and feed us shit. That is what deep state operatives do.

It’s time to put the self-serving American Praetorians out of business. Until we clean house and shut them down, the United States has a two-tier justice system and everyone knows it. One for us; another one for government insiders.

