Authored by John Ransom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A legal expert has warned that the country risks descending into “anarchy” amid escalating criticism of federal law enforcement bodies in the wake of the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Facing heated allegations of bias, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 30 banned political activity of all non-career, political appointees at agency.
“We must do all we can to maintain public trust and ensure that politics—both in fact and appearance—does not compromise or affect the integrity of our work,” Garland wrote in a memo to DOJ employees announcing the ban against going to political events before the mid-term elections.
The ban came as public distrust of federal law enforcement agencies have trended to low levels, with 53 percent of voters agreeing with a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is “Joe Biden’s Gestapo,” according to a survey by pollster Rasmussen conducted on Aug. 15 and 16.
The survey of 1,000 U.S. likely voters also showed that 44 percent of those polled now view the FBI less favorably after the agency conducted a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and club last month over documents the government alleges Trump doesn’t have permission to hold.
Overall, only 36 percent of likely voters disagree with the description of the FBI as a “Gestapo” that benefits President Joe Biden.
The DOJ ban also came a few days before Biden took to the TV airwaves with rhetoric attacking Trump-supporting Republicans.
In a Sept. 1 speech given in the shadow of Philadelphia’s Liberty Hall, Biden warned against “MAGA Republicans” who “live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.”
‘Spiraling to Anarchy’
“We are spiraling to anarchy, and we have to take the politics out of the positions by people of power within our legislative and executive branch,” attorney Sandra Spurgeon, who has litigated hundreds of cases to a verdict, told The Epoch Times.
Spurgeon, who supports the DOJ ban, said that Garland had no choice but to do something to try to restore the public’s respect for law enforcement. She warned that the leadership of the DOJ and the FBI “live a very different life than you and I do.”
“They don’t think about the same things on the level that we would think of things because they have been elevated into a state where they have lost the appreciation of impartiality,” Surgeon added about top government officials targeted in the ban.
“And quite frankly, they just don’t care,” she added.
And it’s that out-of-touch behavior by our political class that has caused the crisis that necessitated the DOJ ban, one former U.S. special agent told The Epoch Times.
“The issue is that a Biden appointee, the U.S. Attorney for the state of Massachusetts, showed up at a Joe Biden fundraising event where First Lady Jill Biden was appearing,” Eric Caron, who previously worked as an agent for the U.S. Treasury and for the Department of Homeland Security said about the impetus for the political ban by the Attorney General.
“She even used a government vehicle,” to get to the event, Caron added, all of which could be a violation of the Hatch Act ban on electioneering.
The electioneering claim is under investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel after the case was referred to the DOJ by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) after Rollins, who had a fractious confirmation process, showed up to the Biden fundraiser.
Politicization Claims
Others have wondered if the ban, as well as another DOJ memo issued on the same day reiterating a policy restricting communications with Congress could be an attempt to intimidate so-called whistleblowers within the FBI and DOJ.
“Ever since we told you that FBI whistleblowers had begun contacting Members of Congress to report on political pressure from high-ranking FBI officials to falsely label some investigations and run interference on others to serve a political agenda, Attorney General Merrick Garland has been very busy trying to shut them down, and anyone else who might expose what’s going on,” noted the American Center for Law and Justice, run by former Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
But even after discounting the possible partisan motives behind the moves, the gesture will be inadequate in regaining the trust and confidence of the American people, said one skeptic.
Under Garland, there have been a number of highly publicized cases that seem to indicate extreme politicization in the DOJ, Mike Davis of the Article III Project (A3P), which promotes constitutionalist judges and the rule of law, told The Epoch Times.
One such episode, according to Davis, included an October 2021 memo by Garland foreshadowing “a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”
The DOJ memo came after the National School Boards Association, a key ally of the Democrats, wrote a letter to Biden, complaining that parents who showed up at school board meetings put school personnel “under an immediate threat” of violence. The association later apologized for the letter. Garland, later testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, said that the DOJ hadn’t been told by the White House to issue the memo.
Read more here...
Authored by John Ransom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
A legal expert has warned that the country risks descending into “anarchy” amid escalating criticism of federal law enforcement bodies in the wake of the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago.
Facing heated allegations of bias, the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Aug. 30 banned political activity of all non-career, political appointees at agency.
“We must do all we can to maintain public trust and ensure that politics—both in fact and appearance—does not compromise or affect the integrity of our work,” Garland wrote in a memo to DOJ employees announcing the ban against going to political events before the mid-term elections.
The ban came as public distrust of federal law enforcement agencies have trended to low levels, with 53 percent of voters agreeing with a statement that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is “Joe Biden’s Gestapo,” according to a survey by pollster Rasmussen conducted on Aug. 15 and 16.
The survey of 1,000 U.S. likely voters also showed that 44 percent of those polled now view the FBI less favorably after the agency conducted a raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and club last month over documents the government alleges Trump doesn’t have permission to hold.
Overall, only 36 percent of likely voters disagree with the description of the FBI as a “Gestapo” that benefits President Joe Biden.
The DOJ ban also came a few days before Biden took to the TV airwaves with rhetoric attacking Trump-supporting Republicans.
In a Sept. 1 speech given in the shadow of Philadelphia’s Liberty Hall, Biden warned against “MAGA Republicans” who “live not in the light of truth but in the shadow of lies.”
‘Spiraling to Anarchy’
“We are spiraling to anarchy, and we have to take the politics out of the positions by people of power within our legislative and executive branch,” attorney Sandra Spurgeon, who has litigated hundreds of cases to a verdict, told The Epoch Times.
Spurgeon, who supports the DOJ ban, said that Garland had no choice but to do something to try to restore the public’s respect for law enforcement. She warned that the leadership of the DOJ and the FBI “live a very different life than you and I do.”
“They don’t think about the same things on the level that we would think of things because they have been elevated into a state where they have lost the appreciation of impartiality,” Surgeon added about top government officials targeted in the ban.
“And quite frankly, they just don’t care,” she added.
And it’s that out-of-touch behavior by our political class that has caused the crisis that necessitated the DOJ ban, one former U.S. special agent told The Epoch Times.
“The issue is that a Biden appointee, the U.S. Attorney for the state of Massachusetts, showed up at a Joe Biden fundraising event where First Lady Jill Biden was appearing,” Eric Caron, who previously worked as an agent for the U.S. Treasury and for the Department of Homeland Security said about the impetus for the political ban by the Attorney General.
“She even used a government vehicle,” to get to the event, Caron added, all of which could be a violation of the Hatch Act ban on electioneering.
The electioneering claim is under investigation by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel after the case was referred to the DOJ by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) after Rollins, who had a fractious confirmation process, showed up to the Biden fundraiser.
Politicization Claims
Others have wondered if the ban, as well as another DOJ memo issued on the same day reiterating a policy restricting communications with Congress could be an attempt to intimidate so-called whistleblowers within the FBI and DOJ.
“Ever since we told you that FBI whistleblowers had begun contacting Members of Congress to report on political pressure from high-ranking FBI officials to falsely label some investigations and run interference on others to serve a political agenda, Attorney General Merrick Garland has been very busy trying to shut them down, and anyone else who might expose what’s going on,” noted the American Center for Law and Justice, run by former Trump attorney Jay Sekulow.
But even after discounting the possible partisan motives behind the moves, the gesture will be inadequate in regaining the trust and confidence of the American people, said one skeptic.
Under Garland, there have been a number of highly publicized cases that seem to indicate extreme politicization in the DOJ, Mike Davis of the Article III Project (A3P), which promotes constitutionalist judges and the rule of law, told The Epoch Times.
One such episode, according to Davis, included an October 2021 memo by Garland foreshadowing “a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”
The DOJ memo came after the National School Boards Association, a key ally of the Democrats, wrote a letter to Biden, complaining that parents who showed up at school board meetings put school personnel “under an immediate threat” of violence. The association later apologized for the letter. Garland, later testifying at a House Judiciary Committee hearing, said that the DOJ hadn’t been told by the White House to issue the memo.
Read more here…
