Embattled Attorney General Merrick Garland’s controversial tenure at the Department of Justice must end.
We knew he’d be a partisan hack during his confirmation hearings when he refused to commit to protecting special counsel John Durham’s Russiagate investigation, declined to call Antifa’s attacks on federal buildings domestic terrorism, evaded questions about how he would enforce immigration policy, amongst many other things.
And yet, his tenure was worse than we could have possibly imagined. On Garland’s watch, the Department of Justice has become just as, if not more politicized than it was under Barack Obama and his attorneys general, Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. For example, last year, Garland authorized the FBI to investigate parents who protest school board meetings, alleging a “disturbing trend” of teachers being threatened or harassed—which turned out to be completely bogus.
Garland never rescinded the memo, and later, a whistleblower revealed an internal email showing that he had lied to Congress when he claimed the FBI wasn’t using counterterrorism tools to monitor parents. That alone is a crime and thus an impeachable offense. But Garland further disgraced himself and the Department of Justice when he allowed disgraced FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe to win back his full pension and when he allowed for Donald Trump’s private tax records to be released to Congress despite Congress having no legitimate claim to access them.
The FBI also conducted searches of Project Veritas over the alleged theft of Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley’s diary—remember that story? Garland’s Department of Justice also threatened states that pass voter integrity laws over bogus allegations of minority voter suppression. Texas also found itself in the sights of Garland’s DOJ for its fetal heartbeat bill. Garland abuses his power to protect Biden and his allies and targets Biden’s enemies whenever possible. He even declined to launch an investigation into COVID-19 nursing home deaths in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, protecting the Democrat governors of those states.
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Garland has politicized and weaponized the Department of Justice in virtually every way. It has continued unabated for over a year and a half with no consequences. The latest black mark on his record is his shameful lack of response to the assassination attempt on Justice Brett Kavanaugh by a radical left-wing abortion activist. Garland refused to prosecute the protestors before the assassination attempt, even though it is undoubtedly illegal to do so under 18 U.S. Code § 1507, and even afterward, Garland chose to do nothing to remove the protesters. In fact, the Department of Justice doubled down on letting the protestors assemble at the homes of Supreme Court justices.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the FBI’s Washington Field Office are committed to protecting the First Amendment rights of all Americans to express their views peacefully during demonstrations that take place on a regular basis in the nation’s capital, including at the Supreme Court,” they said in a statement Friday.
Enough is enough. Merrick Garland has been a disgrace, and at least one Republican senator says Garland should resign or be impeached.
“There’s an explicit federal law against protesting in front of the homes of judges or jurors,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said Thursday. “Yet again, the feckless and hapless Attorney General Merrick Garland did nothing even though he had advanced knowledge. He should resign in disgrace. And if he won’t resign in disgrace, then we should start impeachment proceedings against him in January when we are in control of Congress. Because the rule of law in this country must be enforced evenly, irrespective of one’s political parties and views.”
Cotton is right. There is ample evidence against Garland, and Republicans need to show backbone and hold him accountable.
