A two-tiered justice system

Over the last several years Americans have watched the Left do everything they could to take down President Donald Trump. There was the Russia-Trump collusion conspiracy theory, where Washington Democrats teamed up with the liberal media to go after Trump. We saw a liberal New York City District Attorney manufacture a case against the former president -- a case so questionable that any reasonable prosecutor would have long since walked away from it. But what's most alarming of all is that the Left is turning the government into a weapon to target their political opponents.

Never before has a sitting president weaponized the federal government against his political opponent like this. The American people deserve better. They find it disturbing that the president's leading opponent was charged for doing something that even this current president has his hands dirty on. But that's what life has become in an America with a two-tiered justice system, where someone's political affiliation can determine whether they'll be held accountable for committing a crime.

This administration is targeting a political opponent for the same supposed crime that multiple Democrat officials have committed -- including President Biden himself. Biden was caught with storing classified papers in the Penn Biden Center -- his think tank -- and also in his garage, right next to his Corvette. And then there was Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was never held accountable for storing emails containing classified information on a private, unsecured server at her home. In fact, then-FBI Director James Comey stated Clinton and her team were "extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." But that was from a statement on why he was NOT pursuing charges against her!

What makes the recent allegations against Trump even more troubling is that his indictment came the same week we learned about disturbing accusations about Biden's possible involvement in a bribery scheme. According to news reports, Biden was allegedly paid $5 million by an executive of Burisma Holdings -- the Ukrainian natural gas firm where his son Hunter Biden sat on the board. We don't yet know the veracity of those reports, but you can't blame Missourians for being outraged at what appears on its face to be a double standard of justice.

One of the top priorities for Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives is investigating and putting an end to the weaponization of the federal government. As Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means I set up a whistleblower hotline to allow any IRS employee to report to our committee any allegations of improper behavior or misconduct at their agency.

Whether the Left is using the federal government as a weapon to take down their main political opponent or to silence parents who speak out about all the craziness going on in their children's schools, they believe that the government is just another tool they can use to force their agenda, way of life, and values on the rest of America -- no matter how high the cost. That's absolutely unacceptable. Regardless of what the Left tries next, House Republicans will fight tooth and nail to clean up all the damage they have inflicted on our nation.

Jason Smith (R-MO) represents the eighth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives.