Jordan, Comer back in action

Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.) are back in action, hunting the hunters, as it were. This time they are investigating the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, after he opened an investigation into Leonard Leo, current co-chairman of the board of the Federalist Society. Leonard Leo helped Donald J. Trump appoint an originalist and two moderate conservatives to the United States Supreme Court. So one can readily see why a Democratic public prosecutor would love to have Leonard Leo in the dock. What is less clear, is what took Congressmen Jordan and Comer to long to intervene in an obviously political investigation.

Who is Leonard Leo?

Leonard Leo is co-chairman, along with founder Steve Calabresi, of The Federalist Society. They began as a group of highly educated lawyers specializing in the United States Constitution and other founding documents. The Society began advising conservative Presidents to be more careful in their nominations to the federal bench than, say, Dwight D. Eisenhower or Richard M. Nixon had been. Eisenhower especially came from the school that nominated men to the Supreme Court as a reward for good political service. They would nominate such men, furthermore, without regard to their likelihood of interpreting the law in any given way.

Then Eisenhower nominated Earl H. Warren – an appointment he regarded as the greatest mistake of his Presidency. Among other bad decisions, that gave us Engel v. Vitale.

Richard M. Nixon appointed four Supreme Court Justices. Three of them (Blackmun, Burger, and Powell) made part of the Roe v. Wade majority. Burger and Blackmun also made part of the majority in Lemon v. Kurtzman.Powell split the difference in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. Correcting those judicial errors would take forty-nine years.

That’s why the Federalist Society began to advise Ronald Reagan to pay attention to judicial temperament and fidelity to the Constitution when nominating federal judges. Every Republican President since Reagan has taken their advice. Donald Trump especially took it in the grand manner. Leonard Leo drew up the short list from which Trump appointed Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. They helped correct the above errors.

Revenge

Naturally, “progressives” have sought revenge against Leo and the Federalist Society. On March 1 of this year, Politico.com alleged that Leonard Leo and his friends were suddenly living a little higher on the hog. They based that on a time-honored allegation: “dark money.”

Then in April, the Campaign For Accountability (CFA) filed this complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, concerning seven non-profit organizations Leo controls. They charged that Leo diverted funds from these entities to serve himself personally. No doubt they based their complaint on the Politico report.

Somehow this complaint landed on the desk of Brian Schwalb, Attorney General for the District of Columbia. On August 22, Politico.com reported that Schwalb had “taken the case.” The outlet also reported that some or all those seven non-profits have re-registered in the State of Texas. Not only would this take them out of Schwalb’s jurisdiction, but Texas is also far more business-friendly than is the District of Columbia or the Commonwealth of Virginia – especially Northern Virginia.

Schwalb’s office, reached for comment, “neither confirmed nor denied” whether the investigation was on.

Jordan and Comer step in

This afternoon, Stephen Neukam of The Messenger reported that Reps. Jordan and Comer now were investigating Schwalb. The two Representatives are Chairmen of the Judiciary and Oversight Committees, respectively. The House Judiciary Republican Office released a three-page letter both Chairmen sent to Schwalb.

The photograph in Neukam and Jordan’s posts is of the Federalist Society’s headquarters, after CFA projected a clever image onto it. It looks very much like a message crawler reading BREAKING: DC ATTORNEY GENERAL INVESTIGATING LEONARD LEO. Above this one can see an image of Leo’s face, with red shadow and white highlights. The photograph comes from Paul Morigi of Getty Images and is part of the Messenger article.

The letter asserts a lack of personal jurisdiction over the seven non-profits – because they were never based in the District. They were based in Northern Virginia – as the Politico pieces also make clear. Jordan and Comer also charge that Schwalb’s investigation invades “donor privacy and free association.” But they reserve their most scathing indictment for a review of the crime statistics in the D.C. area.

Instead of using your office’s substantial resources to address these problems, however, your office has reportedly decided to dedicate those resources to a politically motivated probe that “creates an unnecessary risk of chilling free speech.”

Jordan and Comer end by “asking” that Schwalb provide, no later than 5:00 p.m. November 13, documents relating to:

1. Schwalb’s investigation of the seven Leonard Leo controlled non-profits, and
2. Communications between Schwalb’s office and “third-party groups,” including CFA.

What took Jordan and Comer so long to act?

So why are Chairmen Jordan and Comer acting now, rather than in August and September shortly after the story broke? The investigations they’ve been running since Republicans flipped the House are still going on. This includes the Hunter Biden Laptop story, but also includes “weaponization” of government. Brian Schwalb would appear to be a player in such weaponization – a minor player, but still a player.

CNAV believes that any delay in August, and through September, might be due to machinations by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy has shown himself to be opposed to everything Donald Trump stood for. So perhaps he wanted Leonard Leo to suffer.

Now, however, the House has a new Speaker. True, Mike Johnson hasn’t said a word about Jordan and Comer’s latest investigation today. He’s busy doing something else, i.e., introducing a bill to provide $14.5 billion for Israel – and taking that $14.5 billion away from the IRS. In that regard, he said this:

Still, Johnson already has a reputation for upsetting apple carts. Giving those two Chairmen greater freedom to investigate those who threaten freedom of speech might be part of this.

Put them on notice

In any case, that particular investigation is long overdue. It illustrates a central problem with leftist prosecuting attorneys. They’d rather prosecute “enemies of the people” in the Marxist sense, than the real enemies of the people: violent criminals. By investigating Schwalb, Jordan and Comer put many other Attorneys General and District Attorneys on notice. Abuse prosecutorial discretion, particularly at the expense of public safety, and an investigation will follow. Certain other prosecutors – who know who they are – would do well to take heed.