FILE – In this June 14, 2018, file photo, the FBI seal is seen before a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington. The FBI is grappling with a seemingly endless cycle of money laundering schemes that law enforcement officials say they’re scrambling to slow through a combination of prosecution and public awareness. Beyond the run-of-the-mill plots, officials say, is a particularly concerning trend involving “money mules.” These are people who, unwittingly or not, use their own bank accounts to move money for criminals for purposes they think are legitimate or even noble. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Recently I wrote about what I termed, “the America Premium,” that price individuals and businesses pay to enjoy our uniquely American Rule of Law and Property Rights. As always, our Red State readers/commenters came through with additional perspectives that enhanced the topic being discussed.

Read: Businesses, CEO’s and the America Premium

One such commenter, directly tied the two year investigation, subsequent impeachment of The President, along with legal harassment of parties whose only “crime” was association with then candidate Donald Trump, to the entrenched bureaucracy of the deep state. He wrote(emphasis mine).

[P]lease note that the Russia hoax, the impeachment over nothing, the outlaw IC [Intelligence Community] the machinations of the deep state…all of this also makes the “Rule of Law” in America a bad joke. When the state can do to the most powerful man in America what they’ve done to Trump, his family, his associates, and anyone who works or supports him…what can’t they do to a business?…The rampant corruption in DC, in the justice system, and among our elites is another very real “cost” businesses flee from.

He’s right. Let’s have a look at the example of Lieutenant General Mike Flynn. LTG Flynn was a very highly respected intelligence officer who was “encouraged” to retire by President Obama for being too effective. As the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Flynn told President Obama some hard truths he didn’t want to hear. He was given his walking papers. If LTG Flynn had taken his retirement and in the words of General MacArther, simply faded away, he’d be loving life right now. Instead, when asked by candidate Trump to be his National Security Advisor, Flynn saw his duty and said yes.

For having the effrontery to support Donald Trump the vulgarian, the non-politician, the outsider of all outsiders, long term establishment civil servants and Obama political appointees of the DOJ and FBI turned next three years of Flynn’s life into a living nightmare. Not only was he ruined financially, having to sell his home in order to pay legal bills, but he along with his son, was threatened with imprisonment.

Flynn had no chance. The Mueller Task Force had 15 attorneys paid by the American taxpayers. LTG Flynn, a taxpayer himself, had to pay his team by the billable hour and out of his own pockets. Ultimately, Flynn had to plead guilty to a process crime that the two field agents denied that he ever committed.

As I’ve mentioned previously, if you ever become the target of a Federal probe and the Feds really want you, unless you are a billionaire and they choose not to seize your assets under RICO, the Feds have enough taxpayer paid attorneys to spend you out of the game. That’s what they did with Lieutenant General Flynn. In poker they call it, “buying the pot.”

My commenter is right. If our Federal government can misuse the legal system against somebody like General Flynn or the sitting President of these United States, what chance would you or I have against that Federal behemoth? During my brief, 10-year sojourn as a Deputy Sheriff in South Florida, we local cops didn’t always like our counterparts at the Bureau. However, deep down inside, we did regard them as sort of “the high priesthood” of law enforcement.

What some of their members have done to Flynn, Trump and numerous other innocents should be a wake up call for us all. The main glue that makes our nation great, the Rule of Law, needs some serious shoring up. The Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation need some serious housecleaning. If we don’t, the America Premium won’t be worth paying for very much longer.

Hat Tip: Laocoon