Thursday, Federal agents arrested GOP candidate for governor of Michigan, Ryan Kelley, on four misdemeanor charges connected to January 6.

According to a criminal complaint, Mr. Kelley was charged with committing violence against a person or property on restricted grounds, damaging federal property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted building or grounds without permission. All four charges are misdemeanors, according to a spokesman for the United States attorney’s office in the District of Columbia.

An F.B.I. agent described Mr. Kelley’s actions in a filing to the court, saying at one point that Mr. Kelley appeared to use his phone “to film the crowd assault and pushing past U.S. Capitol police officers.” The filing also said that Mr. Kelley used “his hands to support another rioter” who was pulling down a metal barricade, and that he gestured “to the crowd, consistently indicating” that it should continue moving toward the entrance to the Capitol.

Wow. He filmed the events. He gestured. He “used his hands” to support a protester. Keep in mind that these alleged offenses are misdemeanors, they took place nearly two years ago, and the arrest occurs in the context of a gubernatorial campaign.

I suspect the real reason for Mr. Kelley’s bullsh** arrest on chickensh** charges stems more from his politics than anything else.

This is part of an increasingly evident trend by the Democrats and their allies in the Department of Justice to use the federal bureaucracy, particularly the legal process, to protect their people and destroy those opposed to them.

Last Friday, former White House trade adviser to President Trump, Peter Navarro, was arrested by federal agents as he attempted to board a plane in Nashville. The offense was a single count of contempt of Congress brought on by Navarro’s insistence, to the extent of filing a federal lawsuit against the January 6 Committee, that his conversations with President Trump were covered by executive privilege. He was led out of the airport in handcuffs and leg irons, denied communications with his lawyer, transported to DC, subjected to a strip-searched, and put in a cell. Later that day, he appeared before a federal magistrate and was released on his own recognizance—definitely a hardened criminal.

"They intercepted me gettin' on the plane and then they put me in handcuffs, they bring me here. They put me in leg irons. They stick me in a cell."

— Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro on being charged for contempt of Congress for defying a January 6th Committee subpoena. pic.twitter.com/GOee9R3GUB

— The Recount (@therecount) June 3, 2022

Shortly after Navarro’s release, the Department of Justice asked for a “gag order” against him to prevent him from discussing his case in the media.

This episode carried with it echoes of FBI coordination with CNN to video the arrest of Roger Stone as the stupid and illegal Mueller investigation held national media in thrall.

Tuesday, Judicial Watch released more documents obtained under Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits. Some of those covered the cold-blooded execution of USAF veteran Ashli Babbitt during the January 6 demonstration. While video of her killing shows a) she was unarmed, b) presented no danger to anyone, c) never received a warning from police, and d) was just a few feet from a Capitol Police SWAT team, Babbitt’s murderer was exonerated of all wrongdoing without so much as a cursory investigation (WARNING. GRAPHIC VIDEO. Ashli Babbitt’s Shooting by Capitol Police Shows No Weapon and No Danger or Threat to the Cop or Anyone Else).

“He [Byrd] did not create any police reports or documents relating to the incident, and did not provide an official statement regarding use of force” though he did provide a voluntary “debrief” and walk-through of the scene with his lawyer.”https://t.co/e6UvEcazde

— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) June 7, 2022

“These records show that Lt. Byrd was given special treatment by the Biden DOJ and that there was a miscarriage of justice in the half-baked shooting death investigation of Ashli Babbitt,” said Judicial Watch President @TomFitton (3/3). https://t.co/IDhK7RJSP8

— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) June 7, 2022

Consider that prosecutors for two lawyers who firebombed a police car (The Weeping Over the Fire-Bombing Lawyers Is Exactly How You Got Trump) have recommended a maximum of 24 months in jail (down from a possible 20 years apiece in original indictments). Most Antifa defendants who operated in Seattle and Portland had charges dropped. In contrast, folks facing the equivalent of a jaywalking ticket for being at the Capitol on January 6 have been imprisoned without trial for nearly two years. Kevin Clinesmith, the lawyer who lied on a FISA application targeting the Trump campaign team, spent zero days in jail and still has his law license. Michael Flynn was persecuted in the best Soviet-style for a nonsense violation of the ambiguous Foreign Agents Registration Act, while Democrat moneyman Tony Podesta was ignored.

If you haven’t noticed, we are past the point where “equal protection under the law” is anything other than an empty slogan or an excuse to carve out sinecures for preferred groups. The Biden White House is weaponizing the federal bureaucracy to penalize anyone who opposes the regime or the prevailing woke culture. I don’t want to sound like a broken record on this subject; I’ve posted on this subject in more detail on at least two occasions (The Rule of Law Has Been Replaced by One Set of Rules for the Left and Another for the Right and The Democrats and the Deep State Won’t Be Content With a Biden Presidency, They Are Going to Punish President Trump’s Supporters). The top priority of any Republican we happen to get into the White House in 2024 must be burning the federal bureaucracy, particularly the Department of Justice and its subordinate agencies, to the freakin ground. The desire to undertake that mission has to be the only thing we focus on. Fighting inflation, building a border wall, and reinvigorating American manufacturing are great, but if you aren’t willing to go after the progressives who have stopped enforcing the law and started using it as a tool to oppress and punish their opponents, nothing else you do really matters.