Among the many resolutions of impeachment that have been filed against President Biden is one authored by Congressman Andrew Ogles (R-TN): H.Res. 493. That resolution charges that Biden has “obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice” and “weaponized the Executive Office of the President” to cover the influence-peddling schemes of himself and Hunter Biden. Mr. Ogles’ charges focus on how Biden has misused government to cover up his own criminal activities — which clearly would provide grounds for impeachment.
However, it is remarkable that to date, not one impeachment resolution has been filed against Biden for weaponizing government to target his political opponents. The list of such abuses is long and painful. It includes the arrests and overzealous prosecution of most January 6 Capitol protesters for minor offenses. It involves treating pro-life protestors as domestic terrorists. And most recently, the FBI has classified many Donald Trump supporters as what they call “Anti-government, anti-authority, violent extremists” — shortened to “AGAAVE.” Congress has viewed such abuses as so significant that it created the “House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government,” chaired by Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
To be sure, the Department of Justice’s weaponization against political opponents was the focus of an impeachment resolution filed by Congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), but there she sought to remove Attorney General Merrick Garland: H.Res. 410. However, the responsibility for weaponizing the Justice Department is not limited to Garland — President Biden has equal, if not greater, responsibility. The Constitution does not mention the office of the Attorney General: Garland is an officer of the United States appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to a position created by Congress — but his job is not set out in the Constitution. The Constitution does not even mention the U.S. Department of Justice, which also is a creature of Congress.
Under the Constitution, the chief law enforcement of the United States is not the Attorney General; it is the President of the United States. The most familiar constitutional duty of the President may be to serve as “commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States.” But a President’s most important domestic responsibility is to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” Article II, Sections 2 and 3.
There is ample precedent for presidential impeachment based on abuse of the law enforcement role. For example, one of the articles of impeachment approved by the House Judiciary Committee accused President Nixon of weaponizing federal agencies to punish political opponents, stating:
He misused the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other executive personnel, in violation or disregard of the constitutional rights of citizens, by directing or authorizing such agencies or personnel to conduct or continue electronic surveillance or other investigations for purposes unrelated to national security, the enforcement of laws, or any other lawful function of his office…. [“Impeachment of Richard M. Nixon, The Final Report of the House Committee on the Judiciary” at 5 (emphasis added).]
Nixon was famous for having created an “enemies list.” In 1971, White House counsel John Dean wrote a memo titled “Dealing with our political enemies.” The memo discussed “how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies, including grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution.” (Emphasis added.)
In 1972, John Dean gave Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Johnnie Mac Walters a list of some 200 prominent Democrats he wanted the IRS to investigate. Horrified, Walters simply buried the list in his safe and never investigated anyone. The problem is not limited to Republicans, as the Obama administration used the IRS to deny exemptions to and investigate conservative and Tea Party groups. Retired IRS Commissioner Walters stated that he was “distressed” at Obama’s weaponization of the IRS.
But Nixon and Obama were pikers at weaponization compared to Joe Biden. Biden dispatched the FBI to raid his Republican predecessor’s home in an effort to find classified documents to use in a political prosecution. Meanwhile, when it was revealed that both Biden and Obama had taken classified documents, the administration was unconcerned. “What Richard Nixon tried to do, Barack Obama succeeded in doing,” noted Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
And now under Joe Biden, it has metastasized, where the institutional resistance of DOJ and the FBI has been worn down. They put hard partisans in the senior career levels at those institutions, and they now view themselves as the jackbooted thugs for the DNC…. And that’s not what the Department of Justice is supposed to be. That’s not what the FBI is supposed to be. [Emphasis added.]
Biden also created a “Disinformation Governance Board,” tasked primarily with censoring speech by political opponents of the Biden regime. The “DGB” was quickly disbanded, at least temporarily, when it drew massive protest and comparisons to the Soviet KGB and George Orwell’s “Ministry of Truth.” But as the House Oversight Committee noted, “[w]hile the Administration publicly paused the creation of its ‘Disinformation Governance Board,’ [the administration] continues to suppress dissenting viewpoints.”
The states of Missouri and Louisiana filed suit to stop Biden from coercing social media to censor opposing views. Federal district judge Terry Doughty ordered the administration to stop what the plaintiff states called a “vast censorship enterprise” to suppress opposition views on election integrity, COVID-19 vaccines, and other issues. Judge Doughty called Biden’s censorship of political opponents perhaps “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
On appeal, the Fifth Circuit upheld the heart of Doughty’s ruling, finding that the White House coerced social media platforms to shut down opposing speakers through “intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences.” The matter is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. That litigation has proven to be popular with voters, as it was brought by two state Attorneys General who now have been promoted to higher office. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt was elected in 2022 to the U.S. Senate. He explained why he filed suit: “Since taking office, President Biden and his team have labored to suppress viewpoints with which they disagree.” Schmitt’s colleague in bringing that case, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry is now Governor-elect of Louisiana.
As if designed to prove the charges of weaponization, IRS agents went to the home of journalist Matt Taibbi on the same day he was scheduled to testify before Congress on Biden’s weaponization of government. “What are the chances of that being just luck?” Summarizing all the abuses, Dave Bossie, President of Citizens United, explained: “The precedent has now been set — call it the Biden Doctrine — and from here on in, using the Department of Justice and the other levers of power in government to punish political opponents is acceptable.”
The damage that the Biden Administration has done to the nation is incalculable, but impeachment continues to be slow-walked by House Republicans. The good news is that our new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has courage and conviction, which he demonstrated in organizing the filing of an amicus brief by 126 Congressmen in the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the 2020 election. We trust that courage and conviction will now propel him to rally the House Republican troops to move forward on presidential impeachment.
Editor’s Note: To read the articles in this series, please click here.
