by Frank Holmes, reporter
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Joe Biden has fired a prosecutor threatening to put corrupt Democrats behind bars.
This time, President Biden isn’t throwing his weight around in Ukraine. Instead, he’s potentially undermining justice in America by terminating the man who single-handedly spearheaded an investigation into Democratic Party chicanery… just as he was closing in on the party’s big-wigs.
As Yogi Berra might say, “It’s deja vu all over again.”
John Lausch has served as U.S. attorney for the hive of corruption known as Chicago since 2017, and he cranked up the pressure since day one.
He indicted Chicago Alderman Ed Burke on 14 counts of racketeering and corruption, charging Burke with running his political outfit like a criminal “enterprise.”
The dominoes kept on falling. Lausch indicted former Cook County Commissioner Jeff Tobolski and an aide; the mayor of Crestwood; former State Rep. Luis Arroyo; State Senators Tom Cullerton, Terry Link, and Martin Sandoval; and former labor leader John Coli.
Cullerton is the only one still in office; Sandoval has since died.
But Lausch set his sights on the big fish, one of the most powerful Democrats in the state of Illinois: Speaker of the House Mike Madigan.
Lausch found out that Madigan’s associates had cashed in on a sweetheart deal with a power company called Commonwealth Edison, or “ComEd” for short.
ComEd gave Madigan’s cronies $200 million in favors and do-nothing jobs in exchange for Madigan giving them favorable treatment in legislation, Lausch said.
You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours—and we’ll both laugh all the way to the bank.
Lausch’s investigation destroyed Madigan, who ruled Springfield with an iron grip for decades.
In January, he stepped down as speaker, then he quit the State House of Representatives and his leadership role in Illinois’ Democratic Party.
And, for all we know, charges may still be forthcoming—we know the investigation into Chicago-style dirty deals is still going on.
Lausch had taken a handful of political scalps, and now he had the walls closing in on his top prize—and that’s when Biden stepped in.
Lausch may have been a great prosecutor, beloved by figures on both sides of the aisle, but he had one problem: He was appointed by then-President Donald Trump.
One of Joe Biden’s first actions in office was to clear-cut the forest of justice: He fired every single U.S. attorney appointed by President Donald Trump.
If they didn’t quit by February 28, he’d toss them out of office…including Lausch, right in the middle of his huge investigation.
Did Biden accidentally fire Lausch as part of his vendetta-driven agenda to purge the federal bureaucracy of anyone not 100 percent loyal to the Democratic president and his far-Left agenda?
Or was this a twofer: Kick out Trump appointees and end a humiliating probe into felonious activity in the Democrat-controlled city?
Either way, his move has raised more than a few eyebrows.
“The timing is particularly suspicious in Madigan’s case,” wrote Rick Moran at PJ Media.
Lausch’s ouster “is bad news for Illinois — and great news to corrupt politicians who’ve been on Lausch’s radar,” wrote the liberal Chicago Tribune in an editorial.
“What a coincidence that the politicians indicted, charged or under investigation so far happen to be mostly Democrats.,” the paper continued. “Dismissing Lausch will look like a Biden-Durbin-Duckworth favor to their corrupt Democrat pals.”
The good news is Biden’s cynical firing was too much, even for Chicago Democrats.
The state’s two Democratic U.S. Senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, wrote a letter asking Biden to let Lausch finish out his four-year term.
The Democrats say they “agree with the Biden administration’s criminal justice agenda” to throw Trump’s people out of a job, but they “believe Mr. Lausch should be permitted to continue in his position until his successor is confirmed by the Senate.”
This turned out to be a bipartisan notion: Yet another statement supporting Lausch came from four Illinois House Republicans: Adam Kinzinger—one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump—as well as Rodney Davis, Darin LaHood, and Mary Miller.
The situation got so hot that Joe Biden—or whoever’s making decisions for him—backed down.
On Wednesday, the White House announced it had made an exception for Lausch, one of only three Trump appointees who will stay on the job.
The Justice Department has no word how long Lausch will stay in office, though.
Is Biden cooling his heels until the situation cools down, so he can quietly let Lausch go?
No one should be surprised by this move: This is a man who admitted at the Council on Foreign Relations that he leaned on the president of Ukraine to pink-slip the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden’s employer.
It seems Biden brings a little bit of Chicago everywhere he goes.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”