RUSH: Four Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee have approved legislation aimed at “protecting” Robert Mueller. They are the chairman, Chuck Grassley, Senator Lindsey Grahamnesty, Senator Jeff Flake, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina. These four have joined the Democrats in voting for the measure to somehow protect special counsel Robert Mueller from Donald Trump as he conducts his Russia probe.

The Russia probe, the Mueller investigation, and everything associated with it is where the criminality in this story has taken place. It is where the lawbreaking has taken place. And it is that lawbreaking and criminality that is being ignored while people who have not broken the law — or who it has not been proven they have broken the law — are under vigorous pursuit and assault, and are in the process of being targeted and ruined both professionally, reputationally, and financially.

It is a breathtaking sight when you really drill down and get past the emotion of all of this and understand what’s really going on. Which takes me to what has happened to add to the subject, the theme, the monologues of yesterday’s program. Victor Davis Hanson has a piece at National Review today called “The Double Standards of the Mueller Investigation.” And he goes through and illustrates how the law is being applied differently to people in the swamp and in the establishment and to people who are not — or who may have been in it.

They’re on the margins like Flynn but were never accepted. People didn’t want them there. And it’s a well-written piece that asks how in the world…? How in the world can a pursuit of crimes for which there is no evidence, actually produce evidence of real criminal behavior and that be ignored? He projects this as a conflict in the justice system, a double standard, and claims that there will be a reckoning, that there will have to be a reckoning between the two systems of justice that are being practiced and are implemented — have been implemented for the last, oh, couple of years, we’ll say.

I read his piece, and it’s at the very end where he says that there will be a reckoning. “For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one. A reckoning is near.” Now, 10-15 years ago there might have been a reckoning. What’s this reckoning gonna be? Who’s gonna do it? I’m not confident a reckoning is near! Who’s gonna make happen the prosecution of all that Mr. Hanson correctly cites here as engaging in illegal behavior? Who’s gonna prosecute Hillary?

Who’s gonna prosecute Steele? Who’s gonna look into what happened with the FISA warrant and the Steele dossier? Who is gonna prosecute the DNC for rigging their election, their primaries against Crazy Bernie? Who’s gonna do any of this? Who in the Justice Department is gonna grab hold of things and start pursuing and investigating the actual perpetrators of crime here? They don’t have any evidence of Donald Trump.

They don’t have any evidence of anybody committing any crime in the so-called subject of this investigation (i.e., collusion with Russia). But there is evidence — abundant evidence — of criminal behavior and criminal activity all over the investigator side of this. So who is going to conduct this reckoning? In other words, how is justice going to resolve this? I don’t see it happening. I’m not trying to be pessimistic here. I’m trying to be realistic. I just… Who’s gonna investigate Mueller?

Who is gonna investigate Hillary and the whole Steele dossier, Fusion GPS, Christopher Steele, Perkins Coie (the law firm)? Who’s gonna investigate Clapper? Who’s gonna investigate Brennan at the CIA? Who’s gonna do the investigation to prove what we already know has happened? Who’s gonna do this? Jeff Sessions? Don’t see it. Rod Rosenstein? Don’t see it. Who’s gonna do it? So if there is no reckoning in the justice system, where does such a reckoning happen? And the last place that I can see a reckoning happen would be at the ballot box. It would have to be a ballot box reckoning.

If the public gets sufficiently informed on all this — and becomes sufficiently outraged and greatly offended by all of this and begins to push back against it — then the people being pushed back again are going to be the Democrats and the media and anybody and everybody who is on the side of these people conducting these phantom investigations while ignoring real criminal behavior. If the Justice Department cannot clean itself out because there’s nobody in power there who’s gonna take on the, quote-unquote, “deep state,” then where does the reckoning happen?

It’s gonna have to be at the ballot box, and it’s gonna have to consist of a massively huge turnout by Americans — Republican, independent, wherever — who are fed up with the dual justice system that we have, who are scared because of what it means. The rule of law, the glue that holds this country together, the glue that maintains the Constitution as the founding and defining document to this country. It’s gonna require a massive voter turnout.

It’s gonna require Democrats and media and all these people suffering continued losses like they did in 2016. One thing that is being obscured by all of the noise is how unpopular the Democrats and the media are. You don’t hear about it, but there’s polling data. There’s evidence. The Democrats and the media are not popular, contrary to what the media tries to tell you. The Democrats are not confidently awaiting a blue wave.

This country is not so ticked off at Trump that everybody can’t wait to vote Democrat. That’s a myth. The Democrats and the media remain deeply unpopular, and it is something that’s gonna have to be capitalized on by the Republican Party. And this silly notion of signing on to legislation protecting Mueller by Thom Tillis and Grassley and Lindsey Graham and Jeff Flake is not the way to deal with a reckoning that must happen.

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RUSH: So now we move to Mr. Victor Davis Hanson, his piece today, “The Double Standards of the Mueller Investigation — The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he ignores the actual lawbreakers.

“The country is about to witness an investigatory train wreck. In one direction, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation train is looking for any conceivable thing that President Donald Trump’s campaign team might have done wrong in 2016. The oncoming train is slower but also larger. It involves congressional investigations, Department of Justice referrals, and inspector general’s reports — mostly focused on improper or illegal FBI and DOJ behavior during the 2016 election.

“Why are the two now about to collide? By charging former national-security adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI, Mueller emphasized that even the appearance of false testimony is felonious behavior. If that is so, then the DOJ will probably have to charge former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe with perjury or related offenses. A report from the Office of the Inspector General indicates that McCabe lied at least four times to federal investigators. Former FBI director James Comey may also have lied to Congress when he testified that he had not written his report on the Hillary Clinton email scandal before interviewing Clinton.”

But he did! He wrote the exoneration letter for Hillary before her interview!

“Former director of national intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan lied under oath to Congress on matters related to surveillance. Clinton aides Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin probably lied when they told FBI investigators they had no idea that their then-boss, Hillary Clinton, was using an illegal private email server. Both had communicated with Clinton about it.”

So look at all the lying that’s being ignored! McCabe, Comey, Clapper, Brennan, Cheryl Mills, and Huma Abedin, and Mueller couldn’t care less!

“Mueller is said to be investigating whether Trump obstructed justice by requesting that Comey go easy on Flynn. If so, then the DOJ will have to look at Comey himself and DOJ officials who obstructed a federal court. On at least four occasions, they were not honest about the deeply flawed Christopher Steele dossier being the source of information used in applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

“Comey also has said that he predicated the nature of the Clinton email investigation on his assumptions about her chances of winning the presidency — another investigatory abuse.”

Who in the world decides whether or not to investigate somebody because she’s supposedly gonna win or lose an election. James Comey admitted to doing it. Being ignored.

“The Mueller team is reportedly still looking into the possibility of election-cycle collusion with Russia by Trump officials. That track will require Mueller’s DOJ counterparts to look carefully at the Clinton campaign, which paid opposition researcher Steele, a British subject, for dirt on Trump that was produced through collusion with Russian sources.”

And this is the big one. Mueller is still looking for evidence that Trump colluded with Russia. Meanwhile, as you know by now, Hillary Clinton and the Democrat National Committee colluded with Christopher Steele to write a phony, fake dossier, and his sources were Russian intelligence officers. He hasn’t been to Russia in 20 years. Mueller is ignoring all of that. All of these people are getting away scot-free! They aren’t even being investigated.

Trump and his team are being investigated for things for which there is no evidence! There’s plenty of evidence on the Hillary side of things, on the DOJ side of things, on the Comey-McCabe side of things that is being ignored!

“Mueller is also said to be investigating whether Trump or his advisers broke laws concerning the release of confidential government information. If so, the DOJ may have to indict Comey. He confessed to passing along confidential FBI memos to a friend for the expressed purpose of leaking their contents to the press.

“High-ranking Obama administration officials may also be subject to indictments, given that they may have requested the “unmasking” of American citizens whose communications were intercepted during the surveillance of foreign parties and then leaked the names of those citizens to the press.”

So all of the lawbreaking, all of the violations, all of the quasi-criminality is occurring on the side of the investigators, and it’s being ignored. Meanwhile, there is no evidence anywhere that links Trump to any of these nebulous charges, and that investigation continues. Mr. Hanson says here, there has to be a collision at some point. There has to be a reckoning. This has to get resolved.

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RUSH: Now, I want to circle back. I still got this NFL story in the New York Times today. Somebody sneaked a iPhone or some other device and recorded a meeting between NFL players and owners last October. The meeting is supposed to be confidential and no devices permitted in. Somebody got something in there and they gave the tape to the New York Times, which has a story today reviewing some of the comments made by some of the people, players and owners in the meeting.

And, as I say, one of the takes from this, as I read it, is somebody wanted to throw Robert Kraft under the bus here. He is the owner of the New England Patriots. I’ll explain that when we get to the story. But back to Victor Davis Hanson and the wrap-up here of his piece, “The Double Standards of the Mueller Investigation.” Just one more little comparative set of circumstances here to share with you.

“Mueller’s team apparently has assumed that Michael Cohen’s status as Trump’s attorney offers no protections under normal attorney-client privilege protocols. If that is true, the DOJ will have to investigate why the FBI allowed Clinton aide Cheryl Mills to pose as Clinton’s attorney and thereby be shielded from providing testimony on what she knew about the email scandal.”

And, by the way, Mr. Hanson’s right on the money here. The Clinton-Comey email. Remember, now, Comey wrote her exoneration letter before that interview even took place.

The interview with Hillary was the last thing to happen in the process. It happened over a weekend; she was exonerated before the interview took place. But in the interview, Cheryl Mills, who is not a law… Well, I don’t know if she’s a lawyer, but she doesn’t serve Hillary as a lawyer. She’s an assistant. She’s an executive assistant and aide. She does not do legal work for Hillary at all. Comey agreed to treat her as a lawyer, which immediately extended attorney-client privilege to her, meaning she could not be interviewed.

Hillary could be interviewed. Same thing with Huma Abedin. The two people closest to Hillary were exonerated as well. And, furthermore, Cheryl Mills’ laptop was absconded and then thrown away. Whatever evidence was on it, Comey and the FBI tossed. And Mr. Hanson is writing about this because while they’re invading Trump’s lawyers office and taking every file they could find out of his lawyer’s office — thereby obliterating attorney-client privilege –Comey extended attorney-client privilege to Hillary’s aides, Cheryl Mills and Huma Abedin.

“What is going on? Mueller has searched far and wide for wrongdoing but so far has found little. Meanwhile, there is plenty of other wrongdoing already found, but no one seems to be looking at it. Flynn, Cohen, and other Trump aides are considered small enough fry to go after. Clinton, Comey, McCabe, and others seem big enough fry to leave alone. No one thought Hillary Clinton would blow the election. Top Obama officials at the FBI, DOJ, intelligence agencies, and National Security Council believed in 2015 and 2016 that they could ignore laws with impunity because a protective Clinton administration would soon be in power” in the White House and protect ’em!

So they were free and clear to break whatever law they wanted in exonerating Hillary and pursuing Trump because they all knew they were gonna be serving for Hillary, because she was gonna win, and Hillary would look favorably on what they had done. Hillary didn’t win, and now they are panicking. They don’t have Oval Office protection like they thought they were going to have. Now they’re exposed. Now we have two pursuits — two legal cases here — that are at great odds with one another, and they’re headed for a collision course.

“Politics have infected these investigations.” Some would say corrupted them. “Trump was seen as a threat to the status quo, and FBI and DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of” the status quo. The FBI, the DOJ lawbreakers were seen as custodians of the status quo. So they must be protected. Trump must be sent packing. “The more Mueller searches for hypothetical lawbreaking, the more he is inadvertently underscoring that actual lawbreakers must be subject to the same standard of justice. Ironically, Mueller’s investigation has reminded America that it is past time to call Comey, McCabe, and a host of Obama-era DOJ and FBI officials to account.

“For over a year, we have had two standards of legality when there can only be one. A reckoning is near.” Okay. So when I finished reading that today, I asked myself, “What reckoning? Who’s gonna do it? Who’s gonna fix this? Who’s gonna hold people accountable who are exonerating themselves? Who is going to hold people accountable running a bogus investigation on people that didn’t do anything or for which there’s no evidence they’ve done anything? Since when did ‘guilty until proven innocent’ become a legal standard in the United States system of jurisprudence?”

So who’s gonna do this reckoning? Who is going to prosecute all of these people Victor Davis Hanson correctly cites as having behaved in questionably legal ways? Who’s gonna do any of this? When is this gonna happen? When is this reckoning? Where? This collision that he speaks of, these two legal systems that are happening at odds with each other and are gonna collide? What does that mean? Where are they gonna collide? How does that collision look? When will we know that it’s happening?

I spent some time on this program yesterday on the real danger that our country is in because of these two legal systems, how the law is not being applied anywhere near fairly. The law is being used differently for those in power who are and have been committing crimes. Now, Victor Davis Hanson’s column today, we’ve all talked about these things. We’ve discussed to varying degrees all of these facts: The McCabe news, the Comey news, the DOJ, the deep state, all of these.

We’ve talked about them. Everybody in our circle here, everybody in our orb knows of all of these things. We know what the FBI has done and not done. We know what the DOJ, DNC, Hillary campaign — we know what they’ve done, and they know what they’ve done. But they’re all in the family. They’re all members of the swamp. Trump’s not in the family. So where does this reckoning happen? Where does it take place? Anybody have any ideas?

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RUSH: Back to the phones in northern Illinois. This is Wayne. You’re up, sir. Hello.

CALLER: Mega dittos, Rush. I’m a 15-year listener and just honored to speak with you.

RUSH: I appreciate that very, very much. That’s a long time, and I’m very flattered you’re out there. Thank you.

CALLER: Well, thank you. My statement is that I’ll walk barefoot over broken glass to vote for any Republican. I am just absolutely dismayed by the Democrats that just are absolute obstructionists. They have nothing good to say. I just can’t understand it. And in my own state I had Dick Durbin for which I apologize tremendously.

RUSH: What, did you vote for him?

CALLER: Oh, hell, no!

RUSH: Well, then you don’t have anything to apologize for.

CALLER: (chuckling) And Rush, I’ll tell you, I think that Donald Trump is, No. 1, a very honorable man and is going to be known as one of the greatest presidents that has ever been elected.

RUSH: He’s one of the most honorable men ever, and people have told him so.

CALLER: Oh, yeah. And many, many years ago I met him for just a moment, and he actually turned to me and nodded ’cause we were a distance away. Now, he could have ignored me, and I’m telling you: I absolutely love the guy. And the thing is —

RUSH: Do you look like a banker? Would people think you work at a bank when looking at you?

CALLER: No! No! I’m just a blue-collar worker. Always have been.

RUSH: Well, Trump loves those people. Those are the people who have built his empire, people like you who have built the buildings that he’s developed and so forth, and he does have a great affinity for you, people like you — people that I say make the country work. Look, I know what you mean. Let me tell you what Wayne is saying. Wayne’s been on hold for a long time. When I first brought up the concept here today of the competing legal systems and Mr. Davis Hanson’s belief that there’s a conflict coming and therefore a reckoning, I said, “What’s the reckoning gonna going to be?”

My opinion in the early part of the program was, “The justice system isn’t gonna fix this. So if that’s not gonna happen, where does it get fixed?” and I said that the only place this gets fixed is the ballot box, that these people continue to lose elections. And that’s… I still think that’s the only way this reckoning ever happens. And for that to happen, everybody voted for Trump in 2016’s gonna have to show up in 2018 and in 2020. They’re gonna have to continue to show up, and more people than those people are gonna have to show up. The Democrats are going to have to lose elections if this reckoning is to ever happen, if this is to ever get rectified.