The revelation that the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) may have been abused for partisan purposes in the 2016 campaign has a familiar ring to it.
When investigators target a suspect, one aspect that is highly considered is whether the individual or individuals concerned have a history of similar action. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines this as Modus Operandi: “(Latin: ‘operating method’, )… in criminology, distinct pattern or manner of working that comes to be associated with a particular criminal. Criminologists have observed that, whatever his specialty…the professional criminal is very likely to adhere to his particular way of operating.”
During the tenure of the Obama Administration, there was a disturbing and serious pattern of repeated misuse of the machinery of the federal government for partisan purposes, its Modus Operandi.
The memo recently released by the House Intelligence Committee indicates that the Trump campaign was surveilled on the basis of a warrant that was inappropriately obtained. The key and basic premise for being granted the right to spy on the opposition party was a dossier that was produced by a firm hired by the Clinton campaign to dig up political dirt. The report’s author, Christopher Steele, was paid $160,000 for his efforts.
The firm produced a document that was uncorroborated by any serious facts. Indeed, it seems that the only claim to credence for the document was a clear-cut case of “circular reporting,” where favorable comments about it but based on no additional facts were used to support the request for the surveillance.
To further damage the acceptability of the Obama Administration’s actions in the matter, neither the application for the warrant, nor any of its renewals, mentioned that the evidence presented was the paid work of the Democrat National Committee and the Clinton campaign.
Add to all this the revelation that key members of the FBI leadership clearly expressed bias against Donald Trump, and also moved to quash an important and legitimate investigation against Hillary Clinton.
None of these clearly inappropriate actions should be a surprise.
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Indeed, it is the latest evidence of the Modus Operandi of the Obama Administration: the use of the machinery of the federal government for partisan political purposes. A 2014 article in Forbes called these actions “Obama’s Weaponization of Government…the American people have yet to fully grasp [the reality that] …their government has grown so large, so complex, so involved in virtually every aspect of their lives, that it is now being used as a weapon to by a small segment of the ruling political class…Those tactics reduce every Americans’ personal and economic freedom. There is a dangerous arrogance of power among …President [Obama] and senior-level Democrats that should concern every America …a senior United States Senator gave a speech stating that the IRS should be used to target and punish groups that disagree with the Democratic Party’s political agenda. Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, ‘…there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS and other government agencies — we must redouble those efforts immediately.’ Schumer was also one of a number of Democrat Senators who signed a 2012 letter to the IRS demanding they be more aggressive against conservative organizations.”
Despite statements to the contrary, the partisan IRS assault was not the work of mere underlings. Investigations by the House Oversight Committee found that key officials knew of the actions taken, and may have directed them. Law360 reports that “Public pressure from the Obama administration convinced the Internal Revenue Service to target conservative nonprofit groups for political activity, according to a House Oversight Committee report.
In 2017, National Review voiced a similar concern: “ Under the Obama administration’s watch, the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies from the BATF to the NLRB were illegally used to target and harass the president’s political enemies. The IRS targeting scandal was the most high-profile of these, but others are just as worrisome. Federal investigations and congressional oversight were obstructed, and investigators were lied to outright — a serious crime. The administration protected the wrongdoers and saw to it that they retired with generous federal pensions rather than serving federal sentences for their crimes…The Obama administration’s attorney general, Eric Holder, left office while being held in contempt of Congress for inhibiting the investigation of other Obama administration scandals.”
The Federal Communications Commission sought (unsuccessfully) to place monitors in newsrooms in response to the Obama White House’s anger that talk radio stations were substantially disagreeing with presidential policies, and attempted to harass a leading news organization that was highly critical of the Obama Administration. The Federal Election Commission imposed draconian penalties in response to minor infractions, when the alleged violator was of a party not in power in the White House.
Judicial Watch, which has been instrumental in revealing the wholesale abuse of federal agencies by the Obama Administration, paid a price for exposing corruption in Washington. Among the investigations performed by Judicial Watch was exposing hijinks by Obama appointees at the Government Services Administration (GSA). But the federal agency didn’t hide in shame—they plotted their revenge.
The Washington Times explains: “Political operatives within the Obama administration wrongly punished the conservative legal group Judicial Watch, stripping it of ‘media’ status and trying to force it to pay higher fees for its open records requests…The GSA botched several high-profile open records requests, delaying them for months while political appointees got involved… The findings were released while the administration was facing charges of slow-walking open records requests for Hillary Clinton’s emails, as well as other requests.”
Wrongdoing by federal departments under the Obama White House, right up until its’ replacement in 2017, was rampant. It was the Modus Operandi of the Obama Administration.