In all the insanity that is the 24-hour news cycle, sometimes we can forget that these are real people that make up the stories we talk about. There’s also a loss of proportionality among commentators when they perceive a target to be their political enemy.

Perhaps the most perverse example of that was Robert Mueller’s investigation, where figures who wouldn’t have even been prosecuted under normal circumstances were treated as treasonous devils despite the evidence not bearing that out. And Mueller did his level best to play into that by unleashing his team to harass, threaten, and generally try to scare anyone they could into a guilty plea.

One of those people was K.T. McFarland. While not a center-point of the investigation, she did end up being targeted by Mueller and the story of her treatment is eye-opening.

K.T. McFarland tells @VinceCoglianese and @MaryWalterRadio on WMAL about her interactions with special counsel's team, says she considered taking a plea deal because of pressure from prosecutors even though she wasn't guilty of anything. https://t.co/jfOGFmQux0

— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) February 19, 2020

I won’t spoil the whole thing, as the segment is only eight minutes long and worth the listen, but suffice it so say, the rumors about how Mueller’s team operated are clearly true. These weren’t people looking for justice. These were people looking to deliver scalps in order to take down Trump, either directly or with the hope of creating a case for impeachment.

There’s no excuse for how Michael Flynn was treated, for example. I don’t care what you think of him personally, he was railroaded, had his family threatened, and bankrupted. All for what, exactly? Because of a comment that the investigators in the room didn’t even think was intentionally misleading?

In McFarland’s case, she had done absolutely nothing wrong. But she was so berated and threatened that she nearly plead guilty to a charge out of fear. It’s insanity that this is how our justice system is allowed to operate. Prosecutors run amok, having basically no guardrails, seeing a conviction as more important than the truth. Meanwhile, the FBI can lie and obfuscate without repercussion while they attempt to throw people in jail for less. And we are supposed to just accept this as how prosecutors and law enforcement operate without question.

It’s all so disgusting. If Trump wins re-election, reform of the system needs to be his top priority.