OPINION:
Speaking from the Great Hall of the Robert F. Kennedy Building in Washington last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland described criticism of his department as “dangerous and outrageous.” In so doing, the attorney general revealed himself as the greater threat to American values.
Mr. Garland recited instances in which mean words have been directed at his underlings, saying, “These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out and threats of actual violence.”
Making violent threats against federal officials is a serious crime, which the DOJ has unilateral authority to investigate and punish. It’s disingenuous to suggest the people with badges, guns and the full weight of the U.S. government on their side are at risk from public critiques of their performance.
To the contrary, these “career public servants” deserve additional scrutiny because their authority, if abused, undermines the social fabric. An example of abuse would be to ignore norms that have been in place since the founding of our republic. “Our norms are a promise that we will fiercely protect the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations,” said Mr. Garland.
That promise was broken when the DOJ deliberately deep-sixed the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden’s sale of access to his father — then the vice president — to foreign nationals. The FBI, which answers to the Justice Department, ordered Facebook to suppress legitimate and accurate news stories about Hunter’s laptop and the proof of crimes contained therein.
Once President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential contest, the Justice Department was free to admit influence peddling had taken place, writing in court filings that Hunter “received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion.” Even this concession was forced by the federal judge who shot down the get-out-of-jail-free plea deal Mr. Garland’s minions had concocted with the first son.
While bending over backwards to excuse the conduct of his political friends, Mr. Garland threw the book at his enemies. His department imprisoned former Trump advisors Peter Navarro and Steve Bannon on obstruction of Congress charges that have never been leveled against a Democrat, despite the party’s habit of flouting of subpoenas.
Mr. Garland likewise sat back when pro-abortion activists circulated the home addresses of the Supreme Court justices who returned abortion policy to the states. He did nothing to rein in the unlawful “Ruth Sent Us” protests outside the justices’ front doors. Instead, the DOJ has ruthlessly employed the FACE Act to imprison those praying outside the facilities where the lives of the unborn are ended.
Under Mr. Garland, the FBI also began going after what it called “radical-traditionalist Catholic ideology.” The agency dispatched spies into assemblies of prayerful worshipers who, in the words of an FBI memo, “prefer the Traditional Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings and traditions.”
It almost goes without saying that the unprecedented prosecution of the Republican presidential candidate on the most preposterous charges imaginable is Mr. Garland’s greatest interference in the political process.
But it’s more than that. His policies directly undermine the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly and religion. No fundamental right is safe against his desire to advance the interests of the Democratic Party he serves.
His department deserves no respect until it restores the impartial administration of the law.
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