Theoretically, what happens if there is election interference and the people who are responsible for that are not held accountable? Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal asked. It becomes the new norm, and that becomes how we conduct elections, Smith replied, according to the transcript. And so the toll on our democracy, if you had to describe that, what would that be? the congresswoman asked. Catastrophic, Smith said.
You saw everyday Americans who fought for the education of their children being put on watch lists, I think you saw what happened with Charlie Kirk, when you saw the raiding of President Trump's home. Debates should have happened ... I think that you're seeing the clear indication that the Justice Department under the previous administration used lawfare to go after those who disagree with them," he added.
In March, Erez Reuveni, a veteran Justice Department lawyer, was promoted to the position of acting deputy director of the Office of Immigration Litigation. He decided to personally take on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been wrongly sent back to El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order. On April 5th, Reuveni told his supervisor he would not sign an appeal brief that said Abrego Garcia was a "terrorist." According to a whistle-blower complaint that Reuveni later filed, he said, "I didn't sign up to lie." He was suspended and then fired.
President Trump's second term has brought a period of turmoil and controversy unlike any in the history of the Justice Department. Trump and his appointees have blasted through the walls designed to protect the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency from political influence; they have directed the course of criminal investigations, openly flouted ethics rules and caused a breakdown of institutional culture.
The Justice Department engaged in a "disturbing pattern of profound investigative missteps" in the process of securing an indictment against former FBI Director James Comey, a federal judge ruled Monday in directing prosecutors to provide defense lawyers with all grand jury materials from the case. Those problems, wrote Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick, include "fundamental misstatements of the law" by a prosecutor to the grand jury
The replacements came after online commenters seized on striking similarities in the president's signature across a series of pardons dated Nov. 7, including those granted to former New York Mets player Darryl Strawberry, former Tennessee House speaker Glen Casada and former New York police sergeant Michael McMahon. In fact, the signatures on several pardons initially uploaded to the Justice Department's website were identical, two forensic document experts confirmed to The Associated Press.
"We need you, because it is a war, and it's something we will not win unless we keep on fighting," Blanche said Friday at an annual Federalist Society conference. He said the Justice Department's lawyers are "bouncing around this country fighting these activist judges," who he said are "more political, or certainly as political, as the most liberal governor or" district attorney, Blanche said. Blanche said there were "a group of judges that are repeat players."
