The big money bankrolling the Left’s lawfare

 As Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s transparently political prosecution of former President Donald Trump began last week, it is important to remember that the former president is not the only target of the Democratic Party‘s campaign to use government power to silence political dissent. 

The Left’s efforts to intimidate conservative activists this month included Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) delivering a congressional subpoena to Federalist Society Co-Chairman Leonard Leo. It was voted on by the Senate Judiciary Committee last November without securing a single Republican vote. Durbin has not explained why the subpoena was not delivered for five months.

His attack on Leo comes as another elected Democrat, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb, has also used his office to harass Leo. After a complaint filed by the dark money-funded Campaign for Accountability, Schwalb opened an investigation into Leo’s management of two nonprofit organizations. The Campaign for Accountability alleged that Leo used his control of these to enrich his consulting firm by millions of dollars.

Abusing nonprofit status to enrich oneself is a serious matter. We are sure there are many Washington, D.C., nonprofit organizations that deserve such investigations. But Schwalb isn’t investigating any of them. Nor is he investigating Ibram X. Kendi’s Center for Antiracist Research after it blew through tens of millions of dollars in three years without producing anything of value.

One might point out that the Center for Antiracist Research is based in Boston and, therefore, out of Schwalb’s jurisdiction. But so are the two nonprofit groups connected to Leo that Schwalb is investigating. One is in Virginia, and the other is in Texas.

However, there is a connection between the Campaign for Accountability and the Senate Democratic investigation of Leo: far-left megadonor Stephen Silberstein, who has bankrolled Leo’s main inquisitor in the Senate, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and the nonprofit organization leading the investigation against Leo, ProPublica. Silberstein has also worked closely with the Campaign for Accountability

Like Trump, Leo refuses to be intimidated by the Democratic Party’s lawfare. He is not cooperating with either the Schwalb investigation or the Senate subpoena. Durbin violated Judiciary Committee rules by disallowing debate and amendments on the subpoena, which was then voted on with no quorum present since all Republican members had left. Durbin will now need a vote of 60 senators to enforce his subpoena, a threshold he will fail to meet.

Wealthy Democratic Party donors such as Silberstein are free to fund partisan nonprofit goons such as ProPublica to dig up dirt on political opponents. But when they corrupt elected Democratic officials to use the power of their offices to persecute those political opponents, they cross an ethical line. The Democratic Party must end its lawfare campaigns against Trump and Leo. It disgraces itself until it does so

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2971162/big-money-bankrolling-lefts-lawfare/