Patriot Defense Fund(a project of CLDEF) |
| Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund (“CLDEF”) announces the formation of its Patriot Defense Fund as a project of CLDEF.The Patriot Defense Fund is designed to come to the aid of those leaders who find themselves unfairly accused of wrongdoing. In the past few years, CLDEF has already helped several officeholders and others, but there is so much more to be done — and we need your support.
Please take a minute to read this to better understand why the Patriot Defense Fund has become so necessary for the survival of our Constitutional Republic. |
Special Message from Bernard von NotHaus |
| “When the federal government came after me for designing and promoting the Liberty Dollar, I found out that you don’t need to be guilty to be accused of a crime. At one point, I was called a ‘domestic terrorist’ for exposing The Fed and its Fiat Currency. The lawyers at CLDEF took a principled stand in opposition to the government’s remarkable charge that I was somehow engaging in ‘counterfeiting’ by making coins with precious metals. Now, CLDEF is defending others, including hard-money and advocate former Congressman Steve Stockman. In 2013, he filed the first Bill in Congress to keep federal hands off of Bitcoin and other cryptos. After Ron Paul left Congress, Steve pushed to Audit the Fed. Please make a generous contribution to CLDEF as it stands tall to defend defenders of liberty.” |
| Bernard von NotHaus, Monetary Architect Creator of The Liberty Dollar |
Why the Patriot Defense Fund is So Necessary |
| An old friend of those of us at CLDEF, conservative author and columnist M. Stanton Evans (1934-2015) once observed:
The trouble with conservatives is that too many of them have come to Washington thinking they are going to drain the swamp, only to discover that Washington is a hot tub. We elect people to Congress to change Washington, but Washington changes them. And Stan Evans had a saying for that problem as well: When one of ‘our people’ gets into a position where he can do us some good, he stops being one of ‘our people.’ |
The Carrot and The Stick |
| How does that work? The corrupt Washington establishment has the same two tools that have been around for time immemorial to use to whip newly arrived “reformers” into shape: the carrot and the stick. They are told: take the carrot, or we will apply the stick – with vigor.As to the carrot, have you ever wondered why virtually every member of Congress leaves with substantially greater assets than when he came? Getting along and going along is rewarded with money for your campaign, plum committee assignments, investment tips, international travel — the list of favors available to hand out to the friends of the GOP and Democratic Establishment in this town goes on and on. There is not much we can do about that except to rotate citizen legislators through this city so that they return home before they lose their soul. Even then the unelected bureaucrats remain in charge inside the beltway. (More on that later.)
Often it appears that our leaders have “done something wrong,” because it is an alphabet agency or the U.S. Department of Justice that is attacking them — rather than a politician. In this way, a corrupt Administrative State does the dirty work for Congress. Most of the time they regulate and punish businesses and individuals. But when a conservative reformer gets out of line, he always seems to be accused of violating some law or regulation. And there are plenty of laws from which to choose. Thus, CLDEF focuses on the other prong — the big stick. Those Members of Congress and other leaders who abide by their principles and refuse to go along are singled out for punishment. CLDEF defends our leaders when the establishment lash is applied to their back. |
The Reality of Abusive Government Power |
We are not the only people who think this way. If you want to know more, just read any one of these books by authors left, right and center:
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The Danger of the Administrative State |
| Almost all the “laws” written in DC are written by bureaucrats, not Congress. And the bureaucracy is give the power not just to make regulations with the force of law (Legislative Power), but to enforce them (Executive Power), and to judge violations of those regulations (Judicial Power). In Federalist No. 47, Madison described this fusion of power in the same hands as “the very definition of tyranny.”Congress critters want the bureaucracy to do what it is doing, but do not want voters to hold them accountable at the polls. Using the Administrative State to do their dirty work obscures the real culprits. As Montesquieu explained:
“There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.” And one of the important functions of the Administrative State (the FEC, the IRS, Office of Public Integrity at the Department of Justice, etc.) is to selectively enforce laws against those who do not go along. |
| The Obama Department of Justice arranged to indict one of the Obama Administration’s most vocal critic — Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX). In his first term in Congress in the 1990’s, Stockman served on the House Banking Committee investigating Whitewater. In his second term in Congress during the Obama Administration, he called for the impeachment of Eric Holder, and the arrest of Lois Lerner. He invited Ted Nugent to the State of the Union Address. He exposed corruption in the Iran nuclear deal. The charges brought against him by the second or third grand jury convened to indict him make no sense, but this is the price that our elected officials pay when they fight back against a corrupt establishment. See motions to dismiss filed by Congressman Stockman. |
| The shocking politicization of the U.S. Department of Justice was demonstrated when government lawyers willfully concealed exculpatory evidence during its prosecution of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK). See: Ted Stevens Report: Prosecutors Concealed Evidence, The Blog of Legal Times (Mar. 15, 2012)The full report on these abuses, which was commissioned by a federal district court judge, is here. |
CLDEF’s Track Record |
| CLDEF, which just celebrated its 35th Anniversary, decided to establish its “Patriot Defense Fund” to help defend our embattled conservative leaders.Every week, it seems we hear about another pro family activist or conservative office holder who is being targeted for an investigation for something or another by the Deep State.
CLDEF lawyers have helped defend the constitutional rights of many conservative leaders in the past, including Congressman Ron Paul, Bernard von NotHaus (creator of the Liberty Dollar), D.C. gun rights activist Dick Heller, and others. The same principle applies to state officials. When the federal government fabricated an indictment of Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, CLDEF came to his defense in the U.S. Supreme Court. Robert F. McDonnell v. United States (March 7, 2016) And the same principle applies to state judges, who can even be removed from office in some states if they offend the legal establishment of that state. CLDEF has already helped defend state justices in two states. |
Action needed |
| The only assets we have to bring to this fight are those that we can raise.We ask that you make a tax-deductible contribution to CLDEF and its Patriot Defense Fund, using one of the methods of giving in the column on the right of this page. |
Special Message from Dick Heller |
| “I am a big believer in the work that is being done by the Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund. Its Patriot Defense Fund is exactly what those of us who love liberty need to step in and defend our leaders, like Congressman Steve Stockman, when they come under attack. I urge my friends to join me and chip in and donate to the CLDEF Patriot Defense Fund so that our leaders will know they do not stand alone when they who are targeted by a corrupt establishment. I just contributed to CLDEF, and ask you to contribute also.” |
| Dick Heller, District of Columbia plaintiff in District of Columbia v. Heller |
