By now you’ve probably heard that federal agents from the Obama Justice Department raided Gibson Guitars for supposedly using “illegal” wood. The company denies the wood is illegal and notes others use the same substance in products.

Well, there’s been a new development.

It turns out that Gibson’s CEO Henry E. Juszkiewicz is a Republican donor. But the CEO of C.F. Martin & Company — one of Gibson’s main competitors and another user of the “East Indian Rosewood” — is a big Democratic donor.

How many times has C.F. Martin & Company been raided by the feds? Apparently not at all.

By the way, the Justice Department says the wood being used is illegal because it wasn’t finished by workers in India. There’s an American law against that? Nope. The Justice Department just decided that a law in India says the wood needs to be finished in India.

The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.

On August 24, 2011, around 8:45 a.m. CDT, agents for the federal government executed four search warrants on Gibson’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis and seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. Gibson had to cease its manufacturing operations and send workers home for the day, while armed agents executed the search warrants. Gibson has fully cooperated with the execution of the search warrants.

So federal agents just decided — without consent of India’s justice system — to interpret an Indian law as making wood used by Gibson to be illegal. So the federal agents, working under the Obama Justice Department, decide to raid the Republican-supporting company.

But a Democratic-supporting company that also uses the same wood? Not a problem. Andrew Lawton notes:

The Gibson facility wasn’t raided over allegations of tax evasion, charges of embezzlement, or even something as drab as child labor. Not even close. It was raided over what the DOJ deems an inability to follow a vague domestic trade law in India (one that apparently the Indian government didn’t seem too concerned about enforcing) regarding a specific type of wood. Not illegal wood, just wood with obscenely specific procedural guidelines.

Such is the state of affairs at the Obama Justice Department. It’s now sending federal agents to harass Republican-supporting businesses over vague and unconfirmed wood standards in India. Chicago-style politics at its finest.

Paging Congressman Darrell Issa. Paging Congressman Darrell Issa. Congressman, please pick up the courtesy phone.