We've long known that unelected leftist bureaucrats embedded in the bowels of the federal government have been lawlessly targeting conservatives and abusing their power to thwart the agenda of duly elected Republican policymakers. The proof keeps pouring in.
The Obama administration's IRS deliberately discriminated against conservative groups in their applications for tax-exempt status. This isn't an empty partisan allegation from an imaginary "right-wing conspiracy." In 2013, an IRS official admitted scrutinizing groups with right-wing identifying names, such as "Tea Party" and "patriots." An inspector general's report that year confirmed this nefarious practice.
At least two groups of cases were settled in 2017 with the IRS agreeing to a "substantial financial settlement" in one and expressing "its sincere apology" in another. This is the kind of tyrannical behavior that liberals used to care about.
In a case involving the Linchpins of Liberty and some 40 other conservative organizations, the IRS confessed that it used "heightened scrutiny and inordinate delays" and required unnecessary information in its review of applications for tax-exempt status.
In the NorCal Tea Party Patriots case, involving more than 400 groups, plaintiffs contended the IRS used their tax information for improper purposes.
I know opponents of President Donald Trump roll their eyes in ridicule at the mere suggestion of a deep state committed to undermining Trump's agenda. That's the stuff of paranoid conspiracy theorists or unhinged Trumpublican tribalists, they say. Well, James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas have shown, again, that there is a "there" there.
O'Keefe recently released secret videotapes in which some of these boorish bureaucrats brazenly admit their chicanery, and even brag about it. On Tuesday, Project Veritas released the first of its tapes unmasking these proud pinheads boasting of sabotaging the Trump agenda. The video features State Department employee Stuart Karaffa, a smarmy, self-proclaimed socialist using his government position to resist official Trump administration policies. Karaffa is a member of the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, bless his heart.
He admits to drafting DSA communications at his worksite. "I'm careful about it," says Karaffa. "I don't leave a paper trail, like I leave emails, and like any press s--- that comes up, I leave that until after 5:30. But as soon as 5:31 hits, got my like draft messages ready to send out." Precious.
Karaffa's arrogance is astounding. He says he doesn't believe he'll be caught and punished, saying, "Maybe someday I'll go to board of elections jail, probably not." But what comes next is way worse and ought to infuriate all federal taxpayers. "I have nothing to lose," he adds. "It's impossible to fire federal employees." He also expresses confidence that none of his superiors will detect his conflicts of interest even though he openly discloses them on his required forms. "Somebody just rubber stamps and it goes forward ... I don't know if [the ethics officer is] is all there. He's so checked out." Well, that's comforting.
Most outrageous was Karaffa's description of his objective toward the administration's official policies: "Resist everything ... Every level. F--- s--- up."
In the second released video, Project Veritas exposes Department of Justice paralegal Allison Hrabar reportedly using government hardware and software as part of her socialist activism, and Jessica Schubel, former chief of staff for Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the Obama administration, attempting to thwart Trump's agenda.
Hrabar, also a member of Metro DC DSA, was supposedly one of those who chased Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen from a D.C.-area restaurant. That was beyond despicable. Hrabar allegedly uses the LexisNexis search engine on her work computer to find home addresses for DSA protests, such as that of D.C. lobbyist Jeremy Wiley. She reportedly ran his license plate to help locate his home. Hrabar smugly brags that as an employee of the DOJ, "We can't like get fired."
Hrabar also reveals that one of her DSA colleagues, who works in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, slows down the process to help people stay on food stamps longer.
Schubel admits on the tape to the existence of "a little resistance movement" within the federal government, and says that her friends at the Department of Health and Human Services give her confidential information before it is officially released. "Yeah. It's kind of like the Nixon, deep throat type of thing," she gloats. She further admits, "There's a lot of talk about how we can like, resist from inside [the Justice Department]."
Isn't it cute when leftists virtue signal their feigned concern for the integrity of our democratic process? When you hear a leftist complaining about interference with our elections — or corruption of "our democracy" — just remember that they are ends-justifies-the-means progressives who care not a whit about lawful elections, only advancing their agenda.
With their persistent lawlessness and overreach, the mavens of the "resistance" have awakened a sleeping giant in grassroots conservatives throughout the nation, and they will come to regret it.
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