This day had to come. I find myself with the inescapable view that Sen. Chuck Schumer is being treated unfairly. There, I said it. Edward R. Martin, Jr., the Interim D.C. U.S. Attorney, recently announced that he is investigating Schumer. The possible criminal charge is linked to Schumer’s infamous speech on the steps of the Supreme Court in March 2020, threatening justices with retaliation if they voted against abortion rights. I have repeatedly denounced Schumer for his “rage rhetoric” and his pandering to the most extreme elements of the party. However, a criminal investigation into the speech is unwarranted and unwise.
Many of us were shocked by Schumer’s remarks in 2020. He thrilled the crowd by yelling, “I want to tell you, [Neil] Gorsuch, I want to tell you, [Brett] Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price.”
This occurred before the assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh.
The announced investigation of Schumer clearly pleased many on the right. It was viewed as “fair game” by many who watched Schumer support the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Donald Trump and other conservatives.
However, movements die not from a lack of passion but a lack of restraint. What thrills many is precisely what enraged them about the Biden Justice Department.
Schumer was engaged in reckless rage rhetoric. Even those of us who immediately condemned him did not seriously believe that Schumer was calling for a hit or physical attack on the justices. The danger was how such rhetoric affects unstable individuals like Nicholas John Roske who sought to impose a “price” on Kavanaugh. It is the same rhetoric that fuels individuals like Ryan Michael “Reily” English who is accused of hunting figures like Speaker Mike Johnson and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
In this case, prosecutorial discretion and levelheadedness should have prevailed before the formal commencement of an investigation.
The basis for the investigation is 18 U.S. Code § 115, which covers anyone who threatens a federal government official or their family with the “intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties.”
However, that language followed the precursory language of a threat “to assault, kidnap, or murder” the covered person.
Schumer did not call for physical assaults, let alone kidnapping or murder.
Ironically, this is precisely the type of unhinged interpretation that has characterized the legal analysis on the left for years.
For example, Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe even declared Trump guilty of the attempted murder of Vice President Mike Pence on January 6, 2021. While no prosecutor has ever suggested such a charge, Tribe assured CNN that the crime was already established “without any doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond any doubt.”
It is the same analysis that built impeachment and criminal allegations around Trump’s call on January 6th for his supporters to “fight” against certification of the election. Despite Trump also stating that they should protest “peacefully,” politicians like Schumer and pundits like Tribe insisted that it constituted a criminal insurrection.
It is the same rhetoric used recently by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in calling for Democrats to “fight in the streets.” Likewise, Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.), who insisted that Trump could be criminally charged for his fighting word, called for Trump to be “eliminated.” (He later apologized as did Jeffries and Schumer for their remarks.).
As discussed in my recent book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” rage rhetoric has been part of our political system since the founding. The greatest danger is when such rage rhetoric is used as an excuse for what I call “state rage.” Often free speech is the first casualty in an age of rage.
Schumer is not going to be charged. However, that is not the point.
If Schumer can be investigated for threatening justices with his overheated language, the federal government would have an excuse to put an array of political opponents, journalists, and activists under investigation. Even if they do not result in a criminal charge, they allow for the federal government to use its powerful tools against targeted persons or groups, including potential electronic surveillance and the seizure of documents or files.
The investigation of Schumer will achieve nothing beyond fulfilling the narrative of the left that Trump is going to weaponize the criminal justice system against his opponents. It is more likely to delight than deter Chuck Schumer.
The Trump Administration is already undermining its successful message from the election against political weaponization by threatening line FBI agents or prosecutors who were assigned to the Trump investigations. Trump is correct that the Justice Department and the FBI must be reformed. However, the source of this abuse was not found in the rank-and-file employees who were carrying out their functions under court supervision.
The success of the Trump Administration will demand not just reform but restraint. It must maintain the very discipline that was missing under the Biden Administration, particularly in targeting the use of free speech rights.
Donald Trump could be the president who restored free speech protections after years of censorship and targeting by the Biden Administration. It could be his most lasting legacy. However, that legacy will be lost in tit-for-tat investigations of his political opponents.
Why would you NOT believe him @ his word¿ The dimz/uni-party are locked in a death struggle with MAGAA1st.
It is [dc,inc] or USA, glo-BAAL-ist or Nationalist, there is no middle ground in this death struggle.
NONE
Why you and your ILK grapple with this ugly truth, you give shade, aid and comfort to the enemy/traitors/illuminati who will only grow and become powerful again with talk like this missive you have penned. IF IF IF the monsters that have seized the foreign land that [dc, inc] has become, the monsters will rule.
Mark my words, every city, county, state and federal gov’t entity, the bureaucrats that inhabit them and every element of American society {TV, education, medicine, MIC, free-speech industrial complex, immigration, sports, every facet} are corrupted by corporate greed AND there is NOT one ounce of common ground.
Americans have forgotten how to be Americans.
The enemies of America have imported 3 standing guerrilla armies {S.American, Chinese, M. Eastern}. They abide among us. We are being stabbed, raped, murdered, fear mongered by them. Until YOU and your ILK come to terms with that realization and begin to see, IT IS US OR THEM, expect more of the same psyops to occur.
.
full sToP
AIM small MISS small, lead the runners a tad
MAGAA1st
11b
I have been noting for more than a decade in my posts at various media that we are, in fact, 2 separate and distinct nations attempting to live within one piece of real estate. There is common ground among the left with each other and the same, for the most, among those on the right. The fact that we must attend to is that only one of these ideologies can win and the other must crumble into dust and fade away from the American landscape and culture – which one it will be is going to be determined by this administration. If Trump gets enough support, he will succeed, but if he fails, America will no longer exist as our founding fathers envisioned and our heritage will be destroyed in a whirlwind of communism, multiculturalism, racism and just plain hatred for “the other”. That is what is at stake here and only unindoctrinated adults understand this.
whimsi: At some point, the hatreds have to be cooled and tempered. We are, after all, one nation. And btw, when you say about Trump, that “. . . if he fails, America will no longer exist as our founding fathers envisioned . . . “, how do you explain the recent rampage of one of the world’s richest men, now the head of a “Department” that doesn’t actually exist in law, dragging his henchmen to an established government agency, demanding sensitive information, and then declaring, ex cathedra, that said agency has officially been shut down? Call me nuts, but I don’t think this is the way that Adams, Madison, Jefferson and the boys drew it up.
i would explain Musk as an adviser no more than valery jarrett was to obama and no one in the media or prog/left had hissy fits over her influence. Musk is acting as an advisor to Trump and facilitating what the people elected Trump to achieve. Trump cannot be everywhere and if he asks those he trusts to aid him, what is the problem – the problem is that those who have done inappropriate things are loath to have that exposed (ie, draining the swamp). I view all who have their hair on fire over Musk (who has no official power and only recommends – albeit vociferously) are probably worrying about just what he will uncover and expose.
More like a Bernard Baruch
similar but on Trump is no elite progressive socialist in ideology, but yes, an advisor with no official power. And just why didn’t any of the dems in congress get their hair on fire over valerie jarrett? and then there is the 4 year administration run under the name of joe biden but with puppet masters running the show from behind curtains. This is all about the fear they have knowing just what is in the pipeline of disclosure.
@whimsicalmama
I don’t see him as being any different from other unelected czars; Obama had multitudes, Elon is one person.
The difference: they are doing *everything* out in the open with perfect transparency, for all to see. ‘Cellophane’, as described by even the Professor. This is not something people are accustomed to, they formerly worked in secrecy.
The naysayers can go to h*ll, as they are counting on people’s ignorance., as the modern left always does. None of it is without legal precedence, and that scares the sheet out of them.
The hypocritical gall that these dems have when we just ended a 4 year stealth presidency run by shadow figures.
All good points BUT experiencing the terror of the lawfare cycle he helped unleash because of speech the Dems disliked and labeled as a “threat to democracy” will be a learning experience he MAY NOT SOON FORGET! With the process of Pursue, Prosecute, and Bankrupt it will not matter if Chucky prevails eventually! The damage to his reputation and finances will likely be scaring for life! Welcome to 4 years of living like DJT did – miserably!
My orthodox Jewish husband wants to see “the lizard king”, as he calls him, perp walked to jail right behind obama, biden, and hillary; even though old joe would get off because he is not capable of understanding his crimes at this point but they should ALL be exposed for us or we will never be right as a nation.
I disagree with Turley, who seems to jump to the unsupported conclusion that an investigation into Schumer’s statement will result in his arrest. Members of the third branch of government are entitled to the same protections that we give members of the other two branches. If a public figure or sometimes even a private person were to issue a threat against the POTUS, they could expect a visit from the Secret Service.
According to Newsweek, actor Mickey Rourke received visits from the Secret Service in 2016 and 2019 after publicly saying he’d like to give President Trump a “Louisville slugger” and a “left hook from hell.” Rourke says he’s learned from this and now keeps his opinions to himself. The object of investigating threats is preventative in that by confronting the threat-maker, in this instance, Rep. Schumer, the danger of the threat being carried out is lessened or eliminated.
The practice of defusing public threats this way traces its lineage to the 12th Century, when, in 1170, King Henry II of England, during a fit of pique over Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is reported to have said to his entourage, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Shortly thereafter, four of Henry’s knights hurried to Canterbury, where they murdered the Archbishop.
What was learned from this is that a threat by a public official may incite or cause someone else to fulfill the threat in the hope of pleasing the public official. Therein lies the danger of what Rep. Schumer did when he stood on the steps of the SCOTUS in March 2020 and threatened Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Schumer deserves no less attention from the Secret Service than Mickey Rourke received, and neither should be or will be prosecuted for their vocal indiscretions.
I do believe that what schumer, jeffreis and even old maxine did was incite to commit criminal acts and for that they need to be censured if not expelled.
Do you think that schumer and others in his tribe will no refrain from their threatening rhetoric or shall we wait for a successful assassination?
However, the source of this abuse was not found in the rank-and-file employees who were carrying out their functions under court supervision.
Imagine that, an investigation to hold people accountable for an alleged abuse of power. So it’s true then, we shouldn’t begin investigating people in search of a crime. Nice.
If the rank-and-file have done nothing wrong, then they have nothing to fear from this administration.
I think that the connection between Schumer’s despicable comments and the referenced incidents is too tenuous to warrant an investigation. However, maybe this will cause him to limit this type of speech to the Senate floor, where he has immunity.
Now Maxine, OTOH, should be investigated, since, IIRC, there is a much better causal connection
Mad Maxine’s wig has a higher IQ than she does. She’s also corrupt and deliberately pushes the limit probably more than anyone else.
She’s already on record, and if she again incites people to publicly bully other officials, it’s time for the gloves to come off. I don’t think independent voters would at all mind seeing her jailed for incitement.
(However, the source of this abuse was not found in the rank-and-file employees who were carrying out their functions). I do believe this statement is misleading in that there were plenty of “rank and file” more than willing to support the prog/left agenda and that a THOROUGH cleaning is needed with care to uphold the constitution. Also we could do a lot more if a certain “lizard king” (that’s what my orthodox jewish husband calls schumer) were to be exposed and removed from the scene.
Serpent of the Senate
My husband says schumer makes him feel ashamed to share Jewish heritage with him as he definitely does not follow Torah or the Talmud.
The disgrace Chuck “Ahab” Schumer has brought is immeasurable.
Turley’s right. As egregious as so much Democrat language and behavior were the last four years, retaliation should be limited to especially poor behavior.
Schumer apologized. Even if he hadn’t, I’d still be reluctant to prosecute him. If we aren’t going to prosecute, what is the point of spending this political capital on investigating him?
I agree with the sentiment that payback is necessary for the grunts who did the DNC’s dirty work, but investigating top politicians for indiscreet remarks could bring civil conflict. It’s not necessarily fair but it’s the reality.
The Democrats dirty prosecutions of Trump actually helped him. Had the fools actually jailed him, there’s no telling how dangerous it would have gotten for this Country.
Independent voters probably believe that stripping these bad Democrats of their majorities and the Whitehouse is punishment enough. We don’t want to lose independent voters.
We have mountains to climb. We don’t want to die on this hill. I write this as a voter who is deeply committed to Trump’s success and punishing the Deep State.
“Independent voters probably believe that stripping these bad Democrats of their majorities and the Whitehouse is punishment enough.”
I meant to say “top Democrats.” “Bad Democrats” has become a redundancy.
I’m one indictment away from being re-elected.
When I first read about this a couple days ago I wondered if it may backfire. Trump’s approval ratings got better as corrupt Democrat prosecutors abused their power by piling on more and more “novel” charges. It’s clear to me the public didn’t like it. I believe their abuse of the judicial system against a political opponent is in part why Trump was re-elected.
But putting the political implications aside, Schumer should not be investigated, let alone prosecuted, for speaking. While it’s true social science confirms there is a higher rate of mental illness among liberals than conservatives, presumably making unstable liberals more suggestible to violence, Schumer did not in any way incite violence with his remarks.
On a side note, perhaps Schumer could be indicted for fraud. He circulated a photo of himself standing near a BBQ grill, pretending to grill a cheeseburger. A slice of unmelted cheese sat on top of the raw patty. In other words, he’s trying to pass himself off as an average Joe who like BBQ like other average Joes, yet he’s so isolated from real average Joe’s that he’s never grilled a cheeseburger in the near century he’s lived on this planet. He was forced to delete the photo after he got mercilessly ridiculed.
What has become so challenging is to stay rational and calm while the Left/Democrat demagogues have constantly used incendiary language with abandon. It’s challenging not to play the same horrendous political game for which they, the Democrats, have made the rules. Near daily, influential and pervasive people from the Left/Democrats/Liberals (and their lackeys in the Press) call Conservatives/Republicans terms like “fascist, racist, Nazis” and then try to exact a price by using the arms of government, business, and the media to censor and yes, destroy, us.
The Left/Democrats/Liberals hateful rhetoric flows down to our Facebook pages, our schools, and our conversations. Why shouldn’t Jeffrees and Schumer be “investigated” after the Biden/Democrat DOJ hunted down pro-life protesters, threatened parents about school board meetings, overcharged and jailed hundreds of Jan 6 rioters, ruined the lives of doctors and others who spoke against the disastrous Covid lockdowns, and for years censored truths. The Democrats have made a nasty bed in US politics – some of us would like to see them lie in it.
Making crimes of speech is dangerous for our country. Thank you for your defense of (gulp) Schumer. If Trump’s justice department arrests Schumer, then we will still have political, not impartial justice.
I’m not sure how I feel about Schumer or any of the democrats being investigated and charged for any number of allegations, especially A Schiff. They sat by while a former president was persecuted for years, even trumping up charges in the state Schumer represented and at no time said “enough”. R Giuliani and Gen Flynn’s life’s have been ruined by these people and at no time did any democrat speak up for the good of honest government and the people say “enough”. So my feelings are mixed, on one hand I say “enough” but if the democrats are not dealt with in some form or another they will continue to persecute and prosecute.
Gen Flynn’s life’s have been ruined by these people
I dont disagree with the sentimemt, but trust me, Gen Flynn’s life has not been ruined.
I met Gen Flynn during a golf trip last month at Streamsong Resort.
My brother and I had a great conversation with he and his lovely wife, over a couple of drinks.
He is not bitter in the least for the way his country thanked him for his lifelong service. He knows where the people stand.
He pressed me for the details of my service and mentioned that he’d met many sub commanders, and never one that he didnt like.
They are doing well, I assure you, in spite of what happened.
Anonymous – That personal conversation over drinks where you determined the Gen was doing quite well, was that before or after you carried Judge Smails golf clubs?
So you have concluded that he didn’t actually mean to bring harm upon Justice Kavanaugh? I wonder what Justice Kavanaugh thinks?
Schumer deserves this and more. Maxine Waters should be investigated as well.
While investigating Shumer may be emotionally satisfying, you are right it is politically stupid. Trump should quash this very publically on exactly the grounds you state and further make clear it is not in the best interests of the US to use limited resources going after stupid political speech. Sister Soljah moment anyone?
Unfortunately this only ends when it gets so ugly neither side can stomach it anymore.
you have spent TOO much time in DC and NYC.
Schumer was a MAIN actor of the FRAUD Russian Hoax, fraud impeachments, protecting Biden Crimes, helping illegals…and MANY acts of TREASON!
I believe he SHOULD be JAILED For life! Democrats are fighting a Civil War…against America!
1. No, he wasn’t.
2. None of those things amounted to treason. The constitution precisely defines treason, and any accusation of treason that is outside that definition defies the constitution.
3. Even if none of that were true, Schumer has absolute congressional immunity for ANYTHING he says in the course of his job as a legislator. This immunity is not limited to the floor of the senate, as its UK equivalent is; it applies anywhere he is, and it applies to his staffers too. See Gravel v USA
Murtha would be a better example, but that case was decided at the Court of Appeals. SCOTUS might disagree that the Speech and Debate Clause extends to statements outside of the Senate (or House)
Milhouse is a crybaby
Jonathan –
Your very qualified defense of Chuck Schumer, at least from criminal prosecution, may cost you interview slots with the all-Trump (MAGA), all-the-time prime time talking heads on FOX.
so Democrats and RINOS get to commit endless crimes while taking millions in bribes….and BE PROTECTED!
Anyone helping illegals or allowing gender brainwashing and mutilation…should be JAILED for LIFE!
This isn’t a GAME or Politics…this is wholesale attempted destruction of Western Society!
Turley just keeps defending free speech, something foreign to the federal government and fellow travelers the last four years. That he defends the execrable Chuck Schumer despite Chuck’s threatening language against the Court makes Turley’s consistency all the more remarkable. (I assume many Democrat pols and hangers-on objected to Schumer’s rant.) Some of us remember the liberals’ toothless chant, on the right occasions, that they would defend to the death people’s right to criticize.
“The Trump Administration is already undermining its successful message from the election against political weaponization by…”
As the DOJ already stated, they only followed the facts.
So the election wasn’t a mandate then? Dems flagrantly abused if not broke the law.
Yeah, no one is above the law.
No one is above the law.
Jail schumer.
1. He did not commit any crime.
2. He has absolute congressional immunity for anything he says in the course of his role as a senator, even if it would otherwise be criminal.