OPINION:
The temptation is great among conservatives to get back at the leftists who used government power to harass and imprison their opponents for nearly four years.
President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive victory puts an end to the abuse. It must stop there.
On Election Day, the Department of Justice secured a 14-month prison sentence against an Ohio man who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 “with his fist raised in the air.” The young activist spent six minutes marching through the Rotunda before leaving. He then reentered and spent 15 minutes in the East Foyer. Now he has a felony record for the crime of spending 21 minutes in a public building.
This is just the most recent of the persecutions, now totaling 1,532. Trespassers upset with the last-minute 2020 election rule changes get the book thrown at them. Meanwhile, convicted foreign criminals caught trespassing in our country are given free smartphones, transportation, housing, education and health care by the same administration.
Enough is enough. Every one of this administration’s political prisoners should receive a pardon. This includes current and former Trump aides who have been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses to defend against bogus charges that go back to the Russia collusion hoax fabricated by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016.
As just as it would be to indict the officials from the FBI, DOJ, CIA and other agencies who willingly participated in the dirty tricks, Americans want to move forward. Transparency is the best way to achieve a kind of justice for what happened without reveling in the past.
Every scrap of paper and digital recording relevant to the Russia hoax, Mr. Trump’s near assassination, Jan. 6 and government censorship efforts should be made public on day one. Throw in the John F. Kennedy assassination files, too.
Let history sort out the rest.
President Biden says he won’t pardon his son Hunter for his crimes. In the unlikely event Mr. Biden leaves office without doing so, Mr. Trump should offer a commutation.
Hunter Biden doesn’t deserve it. He shamelessly sold access to his father — including, in his words, to the “[expletive] spy chief of China.” While this is a crime that warrants prison time, locking an outgoing president’s son in a cell won’t make the country a better place.
An America first policy means every action must be judged by how it will help the lives of the rest of us.
Rather than relive the past, devote energy toward reforming the judiciary that allowed the taking of political prisoners in the first place. Fix the legal system that gives prosecutors the power to forum-shop, ensuring that conservatives face trial in jurisdictions such as Manhattan and the District only when the juries and judges aren’t impartial.
Channel the anger into weeding out the government employees who went along with censorship and attacks on religious liberty. With that handled, close the border and pull the plug on government funding for nongovernmental organizations that have been facilitating the onslaught of illegal immigration.
Cut the red tape that strangles business and stifles economic growth. Provide tax relief to those struggling to make ends meet. That’s a lot to do in a short time. Open the books and let the documents expose those who abused their office.
Mr. Trump trounced them at the ballot box in an epic repudiation of their failed policies. That’s the best punishment of all.
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