Is it time to consider a RICO case against the Administration?

We are finding out new and interesting revelations about how our government operates every day, it seems. From an ever expanding IRS scandal to the Department of Justice's fishing expedition at AP to the President of the United States telling us that he found out about all of this in the newspapers just like the rest of us, it seems that everywhere we look there is evidence of the Administration using the apparatus of government as a tool of political repression and widespread corruption.

So say such diverse authorities as Bob Woodward, Charles Rangel, Peggy Noonan and Jon Stewart.

There is now enough evidence to begin considering a RICO (Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization) case.

Think about it. It began with Czars and Czarinas unanswerable to anyone but the president and shielded from any form of oversight. Whole segments of the economy were reorganized behind closed doors, and GM and Chrysler bondholders and retirees were disestablished. The rule of law was damaged.

Then came the regular abuse of executive orders. As recently as last week his recess appointments of members of the NRLB was declared illegal. The Wall Street Journal wrote earlier this year:

"President Obama has shown increasing contempt for the constitutional limits on his power, and the courts are finally awakening to the news."

Early in 2009, the White House, in a conference call hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts urged grant recipients "to plug Barack Obama's domestic agenda". The Administration was called out on this and swiftly withdrew, but it seems that this administration is most adept at pushing the legal envelope.

They have broken new ground in an amoral overreach. Individuals and organizations have been targeted and harmed. The FBI, once the paragon of rectitude, has become an arm of the Obama Campaign.

The president, his press secretary, and his water carriers such as Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi have made the most fantastic claims about the Benghazi investigation. HHS Secretary Sebelius is strong arming the pharmaceutical industry to fund Obamacare.

Everywhere we look we see what is more and more looking like a pattern of corruption.

Should we be surprised? For a politician who came out of the Chicago School, it is par for the course. Valerie Jarrett told us:

"After we win this election, it's our turn. Payback time. Everyone not with us is against us and they better be ready because we don't forget. The ones who helped us will be rewarded, the ones who opposed us will get what they deserve. There is going to be hell to pay. Congress won't be a problem for us this time. No election to worry about after this is over and we have two judges ready to go."

Sounds sort of like Al Capone. But this statement goes to the core of the Administration's philosophy. This how they do business.

The Obamacare scandal saw arm twisting and deal making on an unprecedented scale. None of this has been subject to a legal test. Unions, corporations, special interests and hundreds of other administration cronies received special treatment. Both Louisiana and Nebraska received variances in exchange for their Senator's votes.

Then came Fast & Furious. The ATF supervised and facilitated the cross border supply of 2,700 firearms to the Sinaloa Cartel that were then used in hundreds of crimes including the murder of over 200 Mexican citizens and two federal agents.

The Director of the EPA was found to have used private e mails to correspond with outsiders on government business, a practice that is apparently widespread in this administration. This conduct extends to the White House itself and goes back some time.

The current scandals are only the latest in a pattern of illegal conduct by our government. The threats are very real. Rights clearly protected in the Constitution have been violated time and again and it mainly those who oppose the administration who are affected. It has become Orwellian.

In 1970 the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) was passed. Since then it has been used against the Catholic Church for covering up sex abuse cases; against corporations for hiring illegal aliens; against the Mob, the Hell's Angels and other gangs, and against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick most recently.

It would seem that as time passes, the evidence test will have been met on at least several of the statues specifically covered by RICO. These include extortion, bribery, fraud, and obstruction of justice. The law requires at least two acts in the pattern of racketeering. We have many more in this case.

The government has been highly successful in using the RICO laws to indict and convict individuals for crimes committed against witnesses who cooperate with law enforcement.  In this the use of RICO statutes might take an ironic twist as government has so abused its power.

With Sgt. Schultz defense being offered by the Administration to date, it may at some point be advisable to bring a RICO case. Civil suits are specifically allowed; encouraged, even. But there is a real danger to our legal system which must be addressed. As Thomas Jefferson wrote:

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."


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