Sen. Mike Lee Appears on Glenn Beck’s Show, Mentions “Intimidation” of John Roberts

“BLACKMAIL” NOT A TOPIC OF CONVERSATION

by Sharon Rondeau, h/t ObamaReleaseYourRecords

(Jun. 18, 2013) — Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was a guest on Glenn Beck’s radio show on Tuesday morning to discuss his new e-book, Why John Roberts Was Wrong About Healthcare, which contended that U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts changed his vote on Obama’s health care bill but was wrong in doing so.

Lee said that an earlier version of the bill had presented the individual mandate as “a tax” but that it did not garner enough votes in Congress to pass.  However, Roberts stated in his majority opinion that the mandate could be upheld by considering it a tax, surprising many pundits who had predicted that Roberts would find the law unconstitutional.

Two key provisions of the bill, the mandated expansion of Medicaid by the states and the validation of the bill under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, were declared unconstitutional.

On June 7, Beck released a video which implied that Roberts was blackmailed at some point before the Supreme Court announced its ruling, then changed his vote to uphold it.  Beck presented a hypothetical conversation wherein someone was telling Roberts that personal information had been gathered and framed so that Roberts could be cast in a negative light.  Beck recited a stream of prospective questions and answers which could have occurred between the blackmailer and Roberts: “What have you done?”…”Oh, I didn’t even think about that”…”that’s not what that meant”…”You’re coupling this email with that email”…”you are crazy”…”Can we make this case enough it may not be able to do anything but discredit you?  Your whole life will be destroyed…Sometimes children just do awful things.  I would hate to see your family torn apart.”  Beck finished with, “If you don’t think, America, these things happen, I know they do because they have happened to me.”

Whether or not Beck was speculating is unclear.

Last week, Beck released several more videos, including one on Thursday indicating that something momentous would occur over “the next ten days.”

The Post & Email contacted Lee’s office on Monday to ask if his office would be releasing more information on the claim that Roberts was “pressured” into changing his vote, but the media contact told us that Lee would not be appearing on the show that day.  After we inquired if he would be appearing on another date, she did not respond.

Lee told Beck on Tuesday that one of his reasons for writing the book was to explain the doctrine of “separation of powers” and the intent of the U.S. Constitution.

In response to Beck’s question about whether or not there was “pressure” on Roberts, Lee said that he had no “direct evidence” that he was, which appeared to be a contradiction of Beck’s claims on Friday when he began his show by stating that Lee would present evidence that “John Roberts was pressured, and he believes he can make the case that he changed his vote at the last minute….” and connected it to the NSA‘s ability to gather personal details and internet activity on any individual.  He then asked his current guest, Rep. Steve King, if he believed that “lawmakers may have their personal lives being looked at through things like PRISM and being used to apply pressure?”

King said that he believed “the capability” exists for such surveillance which could be used for elections profiling and strategy. He told Beck that a Democrat strategist admitted that Republicans’ internet activity had been captured by something “similar to PRISM” during the 2012 election cycle.

PRISM was revealed by The Washington Post on June 6 as one of the first revelations from Edward Snowden, who had worked as a contract employee at the NSA and traveled to Hong Kong to release information about the depth and breadth of surveillance programs carried out in the U.S. and abroad.

On Tuesday, Beck introduced Lee as a “fierce” defender of the U.S. Constitution.  Beck then said to Lee, “You say you can lay out a case that he was…not through the NSA, but intimidated and changed his vote.”

Lee also referenced the CBS News report published last July 1 which stated that Supreme Court sources stated that Roberts had been set to strike down Obamacare but changed his vote within 30 days of the final ruling.

Lee then responded that his book explains “what the Supreme Court did” when it upheld Obamacare.  “The Supreme rewrote it in order to save it,” Lee said.  He then went on to say that he believed that Roberts had opposed the bill and “changed his position” after oral arguments were held.

“There was a real campaign of intimidation by a lot of Democrats in the Senate and also from the White House publicly making statements to the effect that “This is going to diminish John Roberts’ legacy as Chief Justice if he invalidates this holy act, this great act of Congress…and at some point, it appears that they may have gotten to him…” Lee said.

The “intimidation” Lee described was reported in the media after Obama gave a press conference in the Rose Garden in which he “warned” the Supreme Court “that a rejection of his sweeping healthcare law would be an act of ‘judicial activism’ that Republicans say they abhor.”

Lee stated that the Supreme Court is not expected to act politically, but rather, in accordance with the Constitution.  He did not characterize the “intimidation” Roberts may have felt as a result of NSA activity or “blackmail,” but rather, as demeaning.

However, in regard to the NSA’s data-mining, Lee said that the potential for using data for “nefarious purposes” exists.  NSA employees have told Congress that they did not make an effort to avoid collecting data from members of Congress and the Supreme Court.

An inquiry sent through Beck’s website as to why Lee’s office stated that he would not be Beck’s guest on Monday did not receive a response.

It remains to be seen if Beck’s prediction of “the whole world is about to change” materializes.   He had suggested that several congressmen might come forward with significant information which would make them “pariahs” or “heroes” n the minds of Americans.

Beck also indicated last week that a whistleblower was afraid for his life, presumably because of information he had discovered contained in a “one-page document.”