Follow the money!
Maybe classified docs special prosecutors are mostly paydays for swamp lawyers
In the Biden classified documents scandal maybe the simplest explanation is the correct one. Of all the theories offered to explain why, suddenly, the swamp appears to be turning on Biden by unearthing classified documents in unsecured locations (like in the garage next to the corvette between the spare motor oil and the badminton racquets), I haven’t seen one that has offered money as the primary motivation. Maybe we should “follow the money” in the words of the legendary Deep Throat of Watergate fame to surmise what the swamp is really up to.
A review of the historical record demonstrates that investigations into presidential malfeasance are big business for the legal arm of the swamp. The Watergate investigation, according to a White House Office of Communications estimate dated June 7, 1974, cost approximately $6.3 million (that’s $38 million in today’s dollars). Why so much? Well, the estimate tallies up 98 lawyers and 222 staff, the equivalent of a mid-sized law firm, devoted to investigating a single case.
So, among other things, Watergate was a money making opportunity. And it was a perfect arrangement from a billing perspective. The client was ultimately the American people, but Congress controls the purse strings and half of them wanted to take Nixon out anyway. Any Nixon loyalists who might haggle over the bill would open themselves to accusations of obstructing justice. Once proof of concept was demonstrated with Watergate, there was no question lawyers would be feeding from this trough in the future. Special Prosecutor: Watergate would for sure have a sequel.
Fast forward to Reagan. The Great Communicator won a landslide victory in his 1984 reelection campaign and had the wind at his back as the American economy roared under policies that kept more tax dollars in the hands of private citizens and out of the hands of big government. Then, in 1986, the D.C. Court of Appeals appointed special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh to investigate an arms for hostages scandal known as the Iran-Contra Affair. In terms of results, the Iran-Contra investigation was an abysmal failure, netting only one conviction of a minor figure on tax evasion charges. But for swamp lawyers it was a smashing success. Special Prosecutor II: Iran-Contra cost taxpayers close to $50 million according to several estimates, ensuring the series would continue.
As if to demonstrate that the swamp is non-partisan in its mission to fleece taxpayers and enrich a credentialed elite, the next special prosecutor entered the scene from stage right. Ken Starr played the lead role in Special Prosecutor III: Whitewater, targeting Bill Clinton. The title sounds a bit off because Starr is best remembered for his pivot to investigate the Monica Lewinsky affair after Whitewater floundered for years with no results. But in the end Whitewater cost $52 million according to Washington Post estimates. Not a bad haul.
The long hiatus in special prosecutors investigating presidents between the Clinton and Trump Administrations is explainable. After the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks during Bush’s tenure, the swamp was fed generously as it built out the modern intelligence and surveillance state. Besides, it would have have been a bad look to go after a wartime president. And when Obama took office, it was all but assured the swamp would not target the first African American U.S. president with a special counsel investigation.
So Donald Trump assumed office at a time when the Deep State was starving for a new investigation. This may help explain the relative explosion of investigations into presidential conduct over the past six years.
In the aftermath of Special Prosecutor IV: Russian Collusion, we have had two impeachments followed by Special Prosecutor V: Raid on Mar-a-Lago and now Special Prosecutor VI: Biden’s Garage. The appointment of a special prosecutor ensures mostly that the pace of the investigation will be slow and the cost to taxpayers will be hefty. While there is an interesting theory that unearthing the Biden classified documents is a “two birds with one stone” maneuver to remove Biden and checkmate Trump, perhaps this is just a fringe benefit added to an eight figure salary for swampy lawyers.
That Biden absconded with classified documents as vice president and left them scattered about his various million dollar residences is worrying. But there should be even greater concern that a career “public servant” like Biden was able to buy multiple million dollar homes in the first place. And that the Penn-Biden Center accepted over $50 million from communist China. And that Biden’s son Hunter was collecting cash for political influence from corrupt regimes all around the globe. And that our nation is $31 trillion in debt, which adds up to about $200,000 for every American worker. The corruption has to stop.
We should not be spending millions of dollars chasing around a few pieces of paper just so some overpriced lawyers can pay private school tuition for their kids and brag about the high level security clearances they got working their latest case. It is time to follow the money, drain the swamp and starve the beast. We are a nation careening toward bankruptcy, both moral and economic. Enough is enough.