As far as I have seen in the resulting news coverage, which is massive, the FBI and prosecutors have yet to give a good, coherent reason why they raided Mar-a Lago. A search warrant requires probable cause, but the warrant is sealed, meaning we can’t see what is in it. In my opinion, claiming Trump removed classified documents from the White House is a ruse. As president, he could declassify anything he wanted, meaning the documents were no longer classified, so no crime was committed.
Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for them to raid Hunter Biden’s house. I think Joe Biden should expect similar treatment after he leaves office. After all, his administration just set the precedent.
But there are two points I think the media is missing. I have not seen coverage on the right or the lift of these two points:
If they can raid Donald Trump, a former president, on a weak pretext, what is to stop them from raiding you or me?
Does a government that already has FBI agents and Federal Marshalls ready to knock down doors really need an additional 87,000 IRS agents?
Let’s take these questions one at a time.
What’s stopping them from Raiding You?
Unfortunately, the answer is “Nothing.” If a Federal agency decides to raid your house or business, little or nothing will stop them. They may lie or exaggerate to get a warrant, or they may have a blank warrant and fill it in after the raid, based on what they find. Find the right judge, and you can get a warrant to arrest a ham sandwich.
And I expect they can always find something in a raid that sounds illegal. They may eventually decide not to prosecute you, but they’ll have something to tell the media. For example, they could say, “We found over a dozen weapons, including several assault weapons, and 20,000 rounds of ammunition, which we have taken off the street.” No one in the media will ask if the subject legally obtained the weapons. They won’t ask how many rounds you shoot a year.
If they find tubular steel and washers, the ATF could maintain that you were making a silencer. Saying “If I wanted to make a silencer, I’d use an oil filter” won’t get you any leeway, especially if you do your own oil changes and have a few oil filters on your garage shelf right next to your case of oil. The Feds can make anything look convincing to their buddies in the media.
When you look at agencies with armed agents who conduct raids, you will probably nod at some of the agencies, like the FBI, the DEA, Customs and Border Protection, and the BATFE. Then there are the Federal agencies with armed agents that might surprise you. These include the EPA, FDA, IRS, NIH, NOAA, and FEMA.
Your Best Defense
Your best defense is to stay off their radar. Don’t give the Feds a reason to raid you. Don’t sell drugs, illegal guns, run a gambling ring, or become a federal fugitive. Stay off social media. Don’t go to protests in Washington, D.C., or outside Federal buildings. If you do something illegal, whether intentionally or accidentally, don’t keep records of it. Don’t give them anything to find on their raid.
If you get raided or arrested for something, regardless of whether you did it or not, get the best lawyer you can afford. This shows the Feds you are serious and won’t roll over. They’d love for you to plea to a lesser charge, so insist you want a jury of your peers. After you hire a lawyer, hire a communications consultant to get your story out there on social media. Give some interviews about how you are an honest, law-abiding citizen who enjoys collecting guns (or whatever) and they are violating your constitutional rights.
About your only other options are to be out of the country when they come looking for you, or pull a Randy Weaver and fight back. Both are dead ends, the latter literally. The Feds have unlimited resources. You’d better hope that you have as many or more armed buddies as Cliven and Ammon Bundy, who will show up and make a stink.
Keep in mind that eventually the Feds win, even at their own expense. Allegations against David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, were never proven, but the BATF killed six in their initial raid. Fifty-one days later, the FBI attacked the compound, resulting in the deaths of 79 Branch Davidians, 21 of whom were under the age of 16. The FBI looked bad, but that didn’t matter to Koresh and the other dead.
More IRS Agents
If Americans are not paying their taxes, it is because they think they are unfair and excessive. The rich hire accountants and lawyers to find ways to avoid paying taxes. They use trusts, LLCs, off-shore corporations, and networks of businesses to obscure ownership of assets. That yacht? It’s owned by a company, not a billionaire. They can also afford to take advantage of long term capital gains taxes and benefit from a reset of the assets value when it is inherited by an heir.
The rest of us, the middle class, we pay income tax on our income. These days, it is pretty easy to track our income. They get 1099s and other financial reporting from institutions. You can’t earn 18 cents of interest on your saving account without the IRS getting notified by your bank. So where do they expect these new agents will find money?
I expect the new IRS officers, assuming the next Republican president and congress don’t remove funding for these agents, will audit millions of people and find some oversights, some areas of disagreement or confusion, and a few outright cases of fraud. But I suspect an upgrade of the IRS computer system would be more effective and less intrusive than hiring 87,000 arrogant, nosey, self-righteous agents who want to examine every aspect of your finances only to find you sold a motorbike in 2019 and didn’t report the proceeds as income.
It’s not about Money, it’s About Control
New IRS agents are just another way the government is seeking to control you. They don’t want you to have the freedom promised by the Declaration of Independence back in 1776. They know that having money gives you the freedom to do whatever you want, so they will seek to take it away from you in as many ways as possible. Taxes. Fees. Licenses. Registration. Inflation. Fines. Penalties. Interest. They all add up. Failing that, they will settle for you spending all your money on lawyers to prove your innocence.
It’s also about power. The power to grant non-profit status. The power to interpret laws and enforce them how they see fit.
If the IRS prosecutes you, there’s no jury of your peers. If you win, don’t expect them to reimburse you for your legal costs.
The government will spend a quarter million dollars to investigate and prosecute someone to recover $30,000 in unpaid taxes. But they let the Bernie Madoffs of the world skate for years. They let Jeffrey Epstein abuse underage girls for decades because he was friends with presidents. They let Hunter Biden commit a rash of financial crimes because of family connections. Amazon and other corporations pay almost no taxes, but they are aftre a struggling family who brings home $85,000 a year.
Wait! You were expecting fairness? The system is not fair. It is us against them, and while there are more of us, they are the ones with the money and the power.
I will leave you with two thoughts I saw on Twitter today:
We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, and our banks destroy the economy.
And:
Under a constitutional republic, you investigate the crime and search for the person who committed it.
Under communism, you investigate the person and search for the crime.
Sounds like there’s a lot of that going around.
