You first heard it while watching courtroom dramas on television. Perhaps at some point in your own life, you raised your right hand and affirmed these familiar words yourself.
“Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
Sadly, today’s cultural conviction is that truth is relative, personal rather than universal.
It is as if veracity is a tailor-made vest, form-fitting for you, but not exactly the fashion or fit for your neighbor, who is free to determine his own truth … and pay a tailor to design his own “veracity vest.”
If these misguided notions were given voice, the “new” oath would sound similar to this sort of psychobabble: “If it is in keeping with your ‘personal truth,’ rest assured that half-truths, quarter-truths and even untruths are permissible, so agree and feel free to play God.”
How else to explain the outrageous case now under review in the “courtroom of public opinion”?
It is the recently completed exercise that documented wrongdoing but made no demand for accountability. The Durham report confirmed the worst suspicions of American conservatives.
But instead of a real-life “Crime and Punishment,” our tax dollars and four years of investigative diligence brought us a variation which can only be described as “Crime and No Consequences.”
Then again, longtime DOJ Attorney John Durham was handed this mandate by Trump-appointed Attorney General Bill Barr, as Barr was headed out the door to take his place among old-line Republican “institutionalists.”
This GOP “Old Guard” seeks to salvage governmental organizations steeped in ethical rot, saving its collective rage instead for vociferous criticism of a fellow Republican, who served as our 45th president and hopes to return as the 47th.
Since the goal was institutional “inoculation,” Durham followed Barr’s desired prescription. “Lady Justice” now stands enshrouded by double blindfolds, stripped of both her scales and her sword.
Perhaps she should seek bedrest and have a private nurse read her the complete account, officially titled “Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns.”
Among its findings, the 316-page report revealed that in August 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan personally briefed President Obama and Vice President Biden that his agency had evidence of Hillary Clinton planning to falsely link Donald Trump to Russia. Shortly thereafter, Brennan also briefed Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey.
The FBI leadership subsequently went “all in” on abusing the FISA Court process to investigate the Trump campaign for charges of collusion with Russia — charges that from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the Justice Department to CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia — knew to be false.
Trump’s subsequent election upset of Clinton also upset these leftist leaders and prompted fears of their own possible legal exposure. So, they aggressively continued the charade and amped up the deception, finding willing accomplices among House and Senate Democrats intent on derailing the Trump presidency.
“Big Guy,” J.D. Hayworth, Author
Other findings in the report confirming conservative suspicions: evidence of double standards for Trump and Clinton; the fact that the Clinton campaign’s opposition research firm, Fusion GPS, went to the media before the FBI; and that subsequent press accounts, prompted by those leaks on behalf of Clinton, had the desired effect of widely distributing false information, to Trump’s detriment.
But despite providing these details, Durham also made clear there would be no new charges — therefore, no adverse consequences for Clinton, Comey or Brennan.
Moreover, the Durham report recommended no new policy reforms for the FBI or DOJ.
Of course, Durham’s focus was 2016. But the events of 2020 demonstrate that the FBI and DOJ remain “ethically challenged,” and portend similar peril for 2024.
Yet another challenge still remains, revealed in a legal hearing long ago. It came from a Roman governor, contemptuous that a lowly carpenter had been described as a king. That carpenter, imbued with divine and perfect wisdom, frustrated the Roman further by agreeing with the governor’s description.
“You say that I am a king. For this I was born … to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
“What is truth?”
Pilate’s question, though snide, has a simple answer … and it’s not “relative.”
Written by J.D. Hayworth for The West Valley View ~ May 26, 2023