Political persecution did not begin with Trump

Using government power to harass political opponents was a favorite pastime of American presidents before Donald Trump was even born. 

It Didn’t Start with Trump | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

Oct 20, 2025 - "'What do you expect when you sue the president?' Hearing that comment, some people may guess the comment was made by someone addressing one of President Trump’s political opponents who has been targeted for federal prosecution. That quote, though, is much older. It is from an IRS agent addressing officials of a conservative organization that was being audited during Bill Clinton’s presidency. This illustrates that the use of federal agencies to punish presidents’ enemies did not start with President Trump.

"The administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt used tax investigations against political opponents. Targeted individuals included publishers of newspapers that were highly critical of Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies.

"President John F. Kennedy used the IRS and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to drive his conservative critics off the radio. President Lyndon Johnson also used the IRS and the FCC to silence conservative critics. One tool that was used to silence conservatives was to accuse broadcasters of violating the “fairness doctrine” by favoring conservative commentators.

"President Richard Nixon used the IRS to target political enemies. The Nixon administration also threatened television and radio companies with revocation of their broadcast licenses unless they provided favorable coverage of the administration.

"During the Clinton administration, the IRS not only targeted conservative and libertarian organizations. It audited Paula Jones after she sued President Clinton for sexual harassment.

"During the George W. Bush years, the IRS targeted organizations critical of the Iraq War. When Barack Obama assumed the presidency, the tax agency turned its attention back to conservative and libertarian groups, with a focus on organizations associated with the Tea Party. The Department of Homeland Security also issued a warning that those with pro-liberty bumper stickers — including supporting the Libertarian Party or my presidential campaign — might be violent extremists.

"During the Biden administration, many Americans received harsh sentences for being present at the Capitol on January 6 even if they did not commit any violent acts.

"Federal agencies can also target presidents’ political enemies without a presidential order to do so being issued. Some ambitious and unscrupulous individuals will target a president’s enemies believing that this is an effective way to curry favor with the president or high-level administration officials. Others will use the power of the government against the president’s political enemies or those involved with political movements seeking to change the direction of the government out of a belief that these people or groups constitute a threat to the federal government that justifies violating constitutional rights.

"This history suggests that abuse of power is an inevitable feature of the modern welfare-warfare-regulatory state. Therefore, instead of focusing just on electing the 'right' president, we should focus on shrinking the size and scope of the federal government to its constitutional limitations. This will ensure that Americans can exercise their right to criticize the government without fear of reprisal. As Thomas Jefferson said, 'in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.'"

Copyright © 2025 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/it-didnt-start-with-trump/

Ontario AG's office stops prosecution of Trudeau

The Ontario Attorney-General's office is refusing to allow a private prosecution of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for obstruction of justice and breach of trust in the SNG-Lavalin scandal, a decision that Democracy Watch says is based on legally incorrect reasoning.

Ontario Crown counsel stops prosecution of Trudeau for SNC-Lavalin scandal using incorrect legal standard – should reverse decision | Democracy Watch (news release):

September 29, 2025 – "Today, Democracy Watch [DWatch] released and criticized the letter it received recently from John Corelli, Director of the Complex Prosecutions Bureau at Ontario’s Ministry of the Attorney General, exercising the Crown counsel’s power to stop DWatch’s application filed last February in the Ontario Court of Justice in Ottawa for approval from the court to proceed with a private prosecution of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for alleged obstruction of justice and breach of trust by pressuring, and directing others to pressure, then-Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould to stop the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin in 2018 (now operating under the name “AtkinsRéalis”).

"DWatch also released the letter it sent to Mr. Corelli today requesting that he reverse his decision and proceed with the next steps in the prosecution process because his decision is based on legal reasons that are clearly incorrect. DWatch’s applications included a detailed legal opinion by a retired superior court justice (who did the opinion on the condition of remaining anonymous) setting out the clear evidence and legal arguments for prosecuting the PM for the allegation of obstruction of justice, and possibly also for breach of trust.

"Mr. Corelli requested in June that the Regional Sr. Justice have a judge oversee the next step in the private prosecution application process, called a 'pre-enquête' hearing, at which DWatch would present the evidence it pried out of the RCMP, and key witnesses would be questioned such as Wilson-Raybould, her former Chief of Staff Jessica Prince, and her friend and confidante former Liberal Cabinet minister Jane Philpott, and a judge would decide if there was enough evidence to proceed with a prosecution.  Democracy Watch supported that request.  The Regional Sr. Justice had not yet made that decision whether a judge or a Justice of the Peace would preside at the pre-enquête hearing.

"Mr. Corelli’s letter staying (i.e. stopping) the prosecution does not set out any valid reasons explaining why the available evidence of Mr. Trudeau’s actions does not cross the lines established by the obstruction of justice (ss. 139(2)) and breach of trust (s. 122) provisions in Canada’s Criminal Code.... Mr. Corelli only claims that 'there is no reasonable prospect the Crown could prove that Mr. Trudeau acted with the requisite criminal intent for either alleged offence.'  As Democracy Watch set out in its “will say” document that was included in its court application, this is the same incorrect legal standard that the RCMP used to decide not to prosecute Trudeau for obstruction (the RCMP did not even consider whether Trudeau had committed a breach of trust).

"In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada made it clear in its ruling in R. v. Beaudry, 2007 SCC 5 (CanLII) that, in order to prove obstruction of justice, the Crown is only required to prove that an alleged offender acted 'willfully'  to frustrate the course of justice.  Proof of 'criminal' (i.e. deceitful or corrupt) intent is not required. 

"In addition, the case against Trudeau is unprecedented – so there is no way that the Crown could know there is no chance of proving that Trudeau committed a crime.

"Mr. Corelli’s letter also says that he has concluded that it is not 'in the public interest to hear any evidence that may be adduced by the informant' at the hearing, and that 'new evidence' is unlikely to become available because the RCMP did its own review.  This continues the cover-up begun by the Trudeau Cabinet (which refused to disclose internal Cabinet communication records), and continued by the RCMP with its weak, incomplete and delayed investigation that was buried for years, that accepted the Cabinet keeping key records secret, that only interviewed four of 15 key witnesses, that hid key testimony from Wilson-Raybould, Prince, and Philpott, and that trusted without question the biased, self-interested public statements of Trudeau and everyone else who pressured the AG....

“'Crown prosecutors stopping this prosecution for a legally incorrect reason, just like the RCMP did in addition to suppressing key evidence, amount to a smelly cover-up that shows clearly that Canada does not have independent, effective anti-corruption law enforcement and, as a result, corruption in the highest public offices across the country is effectively legal,' said Duff Conacher, PhD (Law) and Co-founder of Democracy Watch.  'This means Canada does not have a rule of law, a rule that violations of the law will be prosecuted no matter who the violator is, which is considered worldwide to be a fundamental requirement for a country to actually be a democracy.'"

Read more: https://democracywatch.ca/ontario-crown-counsel-stops-prosecution-of-trudeau-for-snc-lavalin-scandal-using-incorrect-legal-standard-should-reverse-decision/

Nobel Peace Prize goes to anti-Maduro activist

This year's Nobel Peace Prize is being given to Venezuelan anti-Maduro activist Maria Corida Machado, who has been funded by the U.S. National Endowment of Democracy. 

The Nobel (War Is) Peace Prize | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul: 

October 13, 2025 - "When it comes to destroying your brand, Norwegian Nobel Committee is the Bud Lite of peace prizes. After all, back in 2009 they gave the Peace Prize to a President Barack Obama who then went on to bomb at least seven countries, set the Middle East on fire, and even conduct drone strikes on American citizens! Other awardees have had similarly suspicious records as peacemakers. They even gave a Peace Prize to the likes of Henry Kissinger.

"This year has proven to be no different. Last week the Nobel Committee announced that the 2025 Peace Prize would go to Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado. Machado has a long history in the Venezuelan opposition including support for and participation in the US-backed, 2002 coup against then-president Hugo Chavez. 

"She is likewise a strong opponent of current Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, and in 2018 even wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking for Israel’s assistance in overthrowing the Venezuelan government.

"Shouldn’t we be cheering anyone seeking to overthrow Maduro’s authoritarian style of socialism that is hardly helping the people of the country? Perhaps, but what Machado is seeking is very different from working for change in her country’s system of government. She has long worked with and been paid by the US government’s “regime change” apparatus, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

"NED was founded under President Reagan to do openly what the CIA has been notorious for doing in secret: overthrowing foreign governments that Washington doesn’t like. Scratch any of the “color revolutions” of the past 30 years and you will find the participation of the National Endowment for Democracy.

"Nowhere have these coups and revolutions promoted and funded by NED (and the CIA itself) been even remotely successful. They have only produced broken, ravaged, burned-out shells like we have seen in Libya and elsewhere. They produced chaos and called it freedom and democracy. They even helped put al-Qaeda in power in Syria!

"No, you don’t have to love Maduro or his style of governance to be critical of outside attempts to oust him. In President Trump’s first term, he set his neocons loose on Venezuela and the result was the almost comical rise of the political nobody Juan Guaido. I say 'almost comical' because Trump’s neocons wasted untold millions of our dollars on the farce.

"Is the Nobel Peace Prize just another deep state, soft-power tool intended to boost the US global military empire? The timing of the award going to the relatively unknown Machado is suspicious. President Trump has parked an armada of warships off the Venezuelan coast as his aides openly talk about 'decapitation' strikes on the Venezuelan government. After the extrajudicial killing of some 20 civilians in his attacks on at least four boats off the Venezuelan coast, President Trump is openly bragging that no one dares launch a boat in the area.

"The 'Peace Prize' endows Machado with a new sense of moral authority and gives weight to any 'green-light' she may again give to outside militaries to attack her own country.

"What’s wrong with heeding Machado’s calls to 'liberate' her country? President John Quincy Adams said it best, America 'goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.' We should leave Venezuela alone."

Copyright © 2025 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/the-nobel-war-is-peace-prize/

Barber and Lich sentenced to year's house arrest

Freedom Convoy organizers Chris Barber and Tamara Leach have been sentenced to a year's house arrest, followed by 6 months' curfew, and 100 hours of community service. 

'Freedom Convoy' leaders Tamara Lich, Chris Barber given conditional sentences | CBC News:

Chris Barber and Tamara Lich. CBC News.

October 7 - "Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two major figures of the 2022 'Freedom Convoy,' have been handed conditional sentences and spared further jail time. Barber was found guilty of mischief and counselling others to disobey a court order earlier this year, while Lich was found guilty of mischief. Both were found not guilty on several other counts.

"On Tuesday, each was given an 18-month conditional sentence: Twelve months at home with limited outings per week, followed by six months under a 10 p.m. curfew. Lich is being given credit for the 19 days she initially spent in jail, and for another 30 days she spent in custody after breaching her bail conditions. Barber and Lich will each have to serve 100 hours of community service.

"Lich's lawyer Lawrence Greenspon said they're still considering whether to appeal her conviction. 'The main objective was to make sure she didn't spend one more day in jail, and that was achieved,' he told reporters outside the courthouse.

"Barber's defence lawyer Diane Magas said her client respects the judge's decision and considers it reasonable, adding it was more or less the sentence they expected....

"Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher previously asked Justice Heather Perkins-McVey to impose extraordinary sentences — eight years' imprisonment for Barber and seven for Lich — arguing that such heavy penalties would reflect the profound impact the two had on the public during the protests they led in Ottawa."

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/tamara-lich-chris-barber-sentencing-freedom-convoy-1.7652753

Democrats force U.S. gov't shutdown over Obamacare subsidies

GOP Obamacare Surrender | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul:

October 6, 2025 - "For all the media hand-wringing over the government shutdown the fact is only approximately 750,000 of the over two million non-military federal workers are being furloughed. Most federal programs will continue operating, including the major entitlement and welfare programs. The national parks will remain open, if understaffed and with closed visitor centers. Unfortunately, the shutdown will not affect the military-industrial complex.

"President Trump’s supposed 'master plan' to implement mass firings of federal employees will only fire 16,000 employees.

"Democrats are refusing to vote for a short-term continuing resolution unless it extends the increase in Obamacare subsidies that was part of the Biden-era covid relief legislation. Republicans, who for years campaigned on repealing and replacing Obamacare, are not opposing extending the subsidies. Instead, they are focusing on concerns the Democrats want to allow illegal immigrants to receive taxpayer-funded health benefits. Republicans are also emphasizing that they want to negotiate over extending the Obamacare subsidies, not simply shove them into a 'must pass' continuing resolution. Republicans also want to ensure that laws barring illegal immigrants from receiving the subsidies are in place.

"Republicans’ de facto embrace of the increased Obamacare subsidies, which were supposed to be a temporary increase to help Americans who lost their jobs because of the covid lockdowns, is a little noticed but major milestone in the history of Obamacare. For many years Republicans campaigned on a promise to 'repeal and replace' Obamacare. Opposition to Obamacare, along with opposition to the big bank bailouts and the cap and trade scheme, fueled the 'Tea Party' movement, which led in the 2010 election to a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives. In 2013, as the federal government was implementing Obamacare, Tea Party Republicans orchestrated a government shutdown. The argument was this was the last chance to repeal Obamacare because once it was fully implemented the number of people who would become reliant on the program would make Obamacare politically impossible to repeal.

"These Tea Party Republicans were mocked for their efforts, but history has proven them right. Even though Donald Trump and many Republican candidates for House and Senate promised to repeal Obamacare in their 2016 campaigns, they never even held a vote on full repeal of the healthcare law. Instead, they pushed legislation repealing the “unpopular” parts of Obamacare even though the way the program was structured it was impossible for the popular parts to work without the unpopular parts. The legislation repealing the “unpopular” parts of Obamacare was opposed by some Republicans who had previously voted to repeal all of Obamacare.

"In the 2018 midterm election, the Democrats then turned the tables on Republicans by running as champions of healthcare who would protect Obamacare from the Republicans. This helped them retake the House.

"Now, the majority of Republicans appear ready to ratify President Biden’s increase in Obamacare subsidies. So, Republicans have gone from promising to repeal Obamacare to promising to repeal the 'unpopular”\' provisions to de facto supporting the program.

"Republican failure to effectively oppose Obamacare is because of failure to acknowledge that the pre-Obamacare healthcare system was seriously flawed because of government interventions. Therefore, a way to 'fix' healthcare is via measures giving patients and providers control over the healthcare system, such as tax credits and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Unapologetic advocacy of free markets is the only effective way to oppose big government schemes like Obamacare and advance liberty."

Copyright © 2025 The Ron Paul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/gop-obamacare-surrender/

FBI report sheds light on events of Jan. 6, 2021

The release this week of the FBI's "after action" report sheds new light on the events of January 6, 2021.

The Real Jan. 6th Coup | Ron Paul Institute | Ron Paul: 

Sep 29, 2025 - "In my first column after the events of Jan. 6th, 2021, I criticized those who called the protest a 'coup,' pointing out that, 'Some of the same politicians and bureaucrats denouncing the ridiculous farce at the Capitol as if it were the equivalent of 9/11 have been involved for decades in planning and executing real coups overseas. In their real coups, many thousands of civilians have died.'

"The media at the time played up the violence committed by a relative few at the protest to stoke a national outcry and demands for 'justice.' More than 1,500 Americans were charged over the incident and nearly 500 were imprisoned, including outrageous prison sentences for relatively minor crimes like entering the Capitol building through doors opened by the police, and filming the event.

"While most Democrats and Republicans in Congress harshly denounced the January 6th 'insurrectionists,' a few Members displayed the appropriate skepticism over accepted government narratives. Rep. Thomas Massie, for example, was relentless in his search for answers to a simple but critically important question: How many of the 'insurrectionists' were actually undercover FBI agents and other law enforcement officers and what role might they have played in inciting the violence. Massie grilled then-Attorney General Merrick Garland several times, but Garland would not budge. He refused to say whether there had been any undercover federal agents in the crowd, though of course he must have known.

'Last week we learned a little more of the truth. With the release of the FBI’s long lost 'after action' report, we now know that more than 250 undercover agents were in the crowd. According to the report, they were given roles including crowd control that they were not suited for. Some agents cited in the report complained of political biases in the Bureau against conservatives. What other tasks might have been given to a 'politicized' FBI undercover team?

"In addition to the undercover agents, there were more than two dozen paid informants in the Jan. 6th crowd. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.), who chairs the subcommittee investigating the matter, asks an important question: 'With that many paid informants being in the crowd, we want to know how many were in the crowd, how many were in the building, but I also want to know, were they paid to inform or instigate?'

"Were they paid to inform, or to instigate? That is a good question. We do know that the event was used by the incoming Biden Administration to demonize and persecute the political opposition. There is no telling how many Americans would have liked to use their First Amendment guarantee of free speech to criticize the Biden Administration but were silenced by fear of persecution, or worse. It’s easy to conclude, seeing so many arrested and handed long sentences for non-violent 'crimes,' that it’s better to keep quiet. At the time, the US was still in the grip of Covid tyranny, where speaking out against 'the Science' could get you 'cancelled' or worse. This was another way to silence people who were not 'going along with the program.'

"In the end, January 6th, 2021, was a coup of sorts. It was a coup against the First Amendment. The lesson for all of us is that if we do not regularly but peacefully exercise our First Amendment guarantees we will definitely lose them, regardless of who is in power."

Read more: https://ronpaulinstitute.org/the-real-jan-6th-coup/

Liberals' deficit trajectory unsustainable, warns Parliamentary Budget Officer

Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques warns that the federal Liberal governments' current fiscal path is unsustainable,

Budget watchdog sounds alarm about Ottawa's 'unsustainable' fiscal path | Yahoo News | Craig Lord, Canadian Press:

Interim PBO Jason Jacques (from X).

September 25, 2025 -'Stupefying,' 'shocking' and 'unsustainable' — those were just some of the words Ottawa’s fiscal watchdog used Thursday to describe his scathing forecast for federal finances ahead of a long-anticipated fall budget. 

"Interim Parliamentary Budget Officer Jason Jacques published an updated economic and fiscal outlook on Thursday where he projected the federal deficit would balloon to $68.5 billion this year, up from an estimated $51.7 billion last year. 

"He also expects the federal debt-to-GDP ratio — previously a major fiscal anchor for Ottawa — will no longer decline in the coming years. Jacques told a parliamentary committee Thursday afternoon it is the first time in 30 years he has seen a projection where that key metric rises over time. Based on public statements from federal officials, spending plans announced over recent months and a weakening economy in the U.S. trade war, he said the path for federal finances appears broadly 'unsustainable.'

"'I think everybody should be concerned,' Jacques told MPs on the government operations and estimates committee. ]We’re hoping, and certainly expecting, the government as part of Budget 2025 to clearly indicate what the government plans to do to address … this problem, because it’s certainly not sustainable.'

"The PBO is a non-partisan officer of parliament. The office's updated fiscal and economic outlook offers parliamentarians a baseline estimate of the state of federal finances heading into the Liberals' fall budget on Nov. 4....

"The previous Liberal government under former prime minister Justin Trudeau set an anchor of capping the annual deficit at one per cent of GDP and maintaining a declining debt-to-GDP ratio. The PBO report forecasts that Ottawa will blow past those anchors in the upcoming budget.... The PBO expects deficits to decline slightly but to remain close to $60 billion annually over the forecast horizon. The Liberals projected a deficit of $42.2 billion for this fiscal year in its most recent update last December.

"The watchdog’s update does not include plans to incrementally ramp up defence spending to meet the updated NATO benchmark of five per cent of GDP by 2035.... Kristina Grinshpoon, the PBO’s director of fiscal analysis, told the committee that she believes there’s about $20 billion of proposed spending included in the Liberals’ spring election platform that’s not included in the office’s updated outlook....

"Jacques was named parliamentary budget officer on a six-month interim basis earlier this month, before the House of Commons began its fall sitting. A permanent appointment must be approved by the House, and the Conservative party has pushed to keep Jacques in the role."

Read more: https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/parliamentary-budget-officer-set-release-164430685.html