MIAMI — U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, with the bolstering of human rights activists and former political prisoners from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, accused the Biden administration of utilizing a tactic commonly found in dictator playbooks: Weaponizing the legal system to go after the president’s opponents.
Scott was referring to last week’s indictment of former President Donald Trump, who is facing 37 federal charges related to keeping hundreds of classified documents in his possession after he left the White House in January 2021. Trump will be arraigned in federal court in Miami Tuesday afternoon.
“This isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. No one is above the law. Period,’ said Scott during a Monday afternoon news conference in Doral. “But the rule of law requires equal justice under the law and has gone missing under the Biden administration.”
“If we do not stop this, what will they target you for? If we say nothing then when they come for you, none will be there to speak out against it,” said Scott, echoing the talking points of many GOP politicians.
Special Counsel Jack Smith detailed the federal case against Trump in the indictment unsealed Friday afternoon; the 37 charges include willfully retaining documents pertaining to national defense information, conspiring to obstruct justice, corruptly concealing documents and making false statements. The majority of charges stem from alleged violations of the federal Espionage Act.
The senator questioned why the Justice Department chose to indict Trump on the same day Republicans in Congress read an FBI informant file that alleges Biden, as vice president, was paid $5 million by an executive from Ukrainian company Burisma as part of an alleged bribery scheme to influence policy.
A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that the FBI and a U.S. attorney appointed by Trump reviewed the allegation in 2020, and found the bribery allegation to be not substantiated. Biden last week called the allegations “a bunch of malarkey” when questioned during a press conference with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the White House.
Federal prosecutors are also reportedly nearing a decision on whether to charge Hunter Biden, the president’s son, on possible violation of U.S. tax law and with making a false statement about a gun purchase, according to USA Today.
Scott also questioned why the Justice Department chose to pursue charges against Trump, but didn’t do the same against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was Trump’s Democratic presidential opponent in 2016. The case against Clinton centered on her use of a private email account while she was secretary of state in the Obama administration. Classified material had been found on her email server.
The FBI investigated the Clinton emails and concluded that while Clinton was “extremely careless” in using a private email address and server, she did not willfully mishandle classified information or obstruct justice, according to a statement from then-FBI Director James Comey when he announced in July 2016 that the government would not seek charges against Clinton.
“I really don’t think there’s any plausible comparison between the Trump case and the Hillary Clinton case,” Robert Kelner, a veteran D.C. attorney told the Washington Post. “The key difference is that in the Hillary Clinton case, as we learned from the Department of Justice inspector general report, there was no evidence that Hillary Clinton sought to obstruct justice. … The focus of the Trump indictment is on his rather stark effort to obstruct justice. That’s the fundamental difference.”
Scott sees it differently.
“Folks in Miami know firsthand what happens when those in power weaponize big government to silence their opponents and promote an agenda,” Scott posted on Twitter. “It’s the kind of thing they fled Cuba, Nicaragua & Venezuela to escape. We won’t let it be the normal here. The double standard MUST end.”
Also at the conference: Former Cuban political prisoners Luis Zúñiga, who served 19 years in prison, and Jorge Luis García Pérez (known as Antúnez) who was imprisoned for 17 years; Venezuelan activists Ernesto Ackerman and Kennedy Bolivar; and Berta Valle, wife of former Nicaraguan presidential pre-candidate and former political prisoner Félix Maradiaga.
They spoke about how the regimes in their countries used the legal system to silence their political opponents and those who dissented against them, including clergymen.
Zúñiga, who said he worked 12 years lecturing on socialism issues at universities in Latin America and Europe, said “weaponization of justice” is common in Cuba and that he’s begun to see it in the United States. Education, faith, values, family, “everything is under attack,” he said.
“Believe me, what I am seeing here, is what I was lecturing ... please America, wake up. You are in danger,” Zúñiga said.
