UPDATE (Sept. 26, 2024, 10:55 a.m. ET): This piece has been updated to reflect new details from Thursday morning’s unsealed indictment against Mayor Eric Adams.
The details are still coming into focus, but on Thursday Mayor Eric Adams was indicted in New York on five counts, including bribery, wire fraud, solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bribery. According to the indictment:
Eric Adams, the defendant, sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions in the form of ‘nominee’ or ‘straw’ contributions, meaning that the true contributors conveyed their money through nominal donors, who falsely certified they were contributing their own money. By smuggling their contributions to Adams through U.S.-based straw donors, Adams’s overseas contributors defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign influence on U.S. elections.”
The mayor has denied any wrongdoing. NBC News also reported Thursday that the FBI arrived at the mayor’s Gracie Mansion home to search the premises, and all of this comes against a backdrop of high-level resignations amid at least four federal probes related to the Adams administration.
We’ll learn soon enough what happens next in this ongoing drama, but in the meantime, it’s also worth pausing to appreciate the larger pattern that’s unfolded in recent months. The Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, has:
- successfully prosecuted an incumbent Democratic senator, New Jersey’s Bob Menendez, during his re-election bid;
- successfully prosecuted President Joe Biden’s son while Biden was seeking re-election;
- criminally indicted an incumbent Democratic congressman, Texas’ Cuellar, during his re-election bid;
- searched the home of an incumbent Democratic mayor, Oakland’s Sheng Thao, ahead of her recall election.
- launched an investigation targeting an incumbent Democratic congresswoman, Missouri’s Cori Bush, during her re-election bid.
- taken steps to criminally indict the incumbent Democratic mayor of the nation’s largest city ahead of his re-election bid.
And did I mention that Biden’s Justice Department dropped its investigation into Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, rather than file charges? Because that happened, too.
A neutral political observer might see this and be tempted to conclude that Biden’s Justice Department is unfairly targeting Democrats. And yet, one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have “weaponized” federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability.
The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies.
As we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, ridiculous idea is at the center of the party’s Trump defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.
In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to Republican politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events. Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, they’ve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it. If, however, Republican conspiracy theorists are looking for a president who actually tried to weaponize federal law enforcement, I’d encourage them to check out Biden’s immediate predecessor. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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