Last week the Department of Justice raided the iconic Gibson Guitar Corporation, confiscating materials and records. The reason?   Gibson was allegedly violating the laws of the sovereign nation of India regarding certain imported hardwoods it uses on its acoustic guitars. The Indian government wants these woods to be processed by Indian labor while Gibson prefers to use its own craftsman. 

If enforcing a foreign law to the determent of an American manufacturing business isn't enough, we now learn that Gibson's CEO is a Republican donor and that Feds seem to have given a pass to a rival operation following the same practice that is owned by a Democrat donor

One of Gibson's leading competitors is C.F. Martin & Company. The C.E.O., Chris Martin IV, is a long-time Democratic supporter, with $35,400 in contributions to Democratic candidates and the DNC over the past couple of election cycles. According to C.F. Martin's catalog, several of their guitars contain "East Indian Rosewood." In case you were wondering, that is the exact same wood in at least ten of Gibson's guitars.