(Congress Report) – Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz is not at all happy with Attorney General Merrick Garland, a fact made very clear in a letter he sent to the head of the Justice Department on Tuesday. As per Fox News, the letter demanded information concerning the office of special counsel Jack Smith, going on to reveal that one of the prosecutors on his team involved in the investigation into Trump for the alleged mishandling of classified documents was a donor to President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.
That’s not all. The same prosecutor faced allegations of misconduct back in 2009. Sounds exactly like the kind of folks you would expect to be hired for a hatchet job on a figure in the conservative movement, right? Shame on these people.
Trump has been indicted and arraigned on 37-counts that are connected to the so-called investigation headed up by Smith, including charges of willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. Gaetz, in the letter sent to Garland, wants the names of every single person who worked on the case in Smith’s office to be made known to the public.
“The congressman claimed in his letter that Smith’s past work ‘is both highly irregular and of extraordinary public concern,’ specifically ‘how his office is structured,’ and is giving Garland until July 7 to cough up ‘all staff rosters, phone lists, or similar records, within the custody or control of the Department of Justice, depicting all employees hired by or detailed to the office of Special Counsel Jack Smith,'” Fox said.
INBOX: @mattgaetz sends letter to AG Merrick Garland demanding he preserve and produce all records related to special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump, which led to his second indictment last week. pic.twitter.com/9e6ftYQTDI
— Cami Mondeaux (@cami_mondeaux) June 14, 2023
Gaetz went on to say that the idea this kind of information should be readily available to the public is “beyond debate,” going on to add that “this simple staff list cannot be withheld from Congress or the public on the basis of attenuated and entirely fantastic privacy concerns.”
Fox News continued, “Gaetz pointed out that one of Smith’s deputies who has been named, Karen Gilbert, resigned in 2009 from her position as head of the narcotics section of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida after alleged misconduct, which prompted an apology at the time from the DOJ.”
Records from the Federal Election Commission also divulge that Gilbert gave over $2,000 to former presidential campaigns for President Biden and former President Barack Obama. Later on in the letter, Gaetz threatened to take congressional action to see Smith’s office defunded.
“While there are innumerable valid legislative purposes for this request, it should be obvious that doing due diligence in vetting an office that has apparently done no vetting of its own personnel, or worse, might affirmatively be seeking to staff with sanctioned lawyers and partisan hatchet-men (and women), is an entirely appropriate purpose and one small reason I am requesting this information,” Gaetz asserted in the letter.
“The 118th Congress has procedural tools in place to allow for targeted rescission of funds from components or subcomponents of agencies that are not operating in the public interest,” the congressman added.
The letter came on the same day that Trump was set to be arraigned in Miami.
Gaetz is not alone in his call to see the special counsel’s office defunded. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, remarked on Monday that she will be introducing new measures to remove funding for the office.
“Today, I’d like to announce that I’m writing an appropriations rider to defund Jack Smith, special counsel, his office and the investigation,” Greene stated in a rousing address Monday on the House Floor. “This is a weaponized government attempt to take down the top political enemy and leading presidential candidate of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
Gaetz has also backed Greene’s idea.
“This is an Article I flex! I’m so here for it” he tweeted.
This is an Article I flex!
I’m so here for it https://t.co/mPP2Qtn2YT
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) June 12, 2023
“Judicial Watch announced last week that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the DOJ to obtain records disclosing the names of the staffers working on Trump’s case. The DOJ previously refused to disclose the names, claiming it would ‘constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy,’ Judicial Watch reported,” Fox noted. “The Trump campaign has been highlighting past reports about Smith and his staffers who have so far been revealed to be working on the case in an effort to damage their credibility.”
Trump’s campaign put out a piece last Friday that was published on Nov. 22, 2022, by the Washington Examiner that declared Smith, while heading up the DOJ’s public integrity unit — hilariously ironic name for a government organization — played an “instrumental” role in the IRS scandal that targeted conservative nonprofit groups.
“Meanwhile, Jay Bratt, who is working on the Trump case in Smith’s office, according to reports, was recently accused of misconduct by an attorney representing one of Trump’s personal assistants, Walt Nauta, who was also indicted in the classified documents case. Meanwhile, Gilbert, another local prosecutor working on Smith’s team, in 2009 voluntarily stepped down from her post in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2009 to avoid stiff penalties for allegedly eavesdropping on recorded phone conversations between witnesses and the defense attorney in a narcotics case,” Fox News reported.
It’s time for conservatives to fight back against the politicization and weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies that are now being used to try and intimidate, silence, and even shut down conservatives from speaking out against the progressive agenda. This is a good start for those efforts.
Copyright 2023. CongressReport.com
ANY law enforcement entity (FBI, CIA, DOJ, DEA, local and state agencies to name a few) in the USA should not be influenced by politics whatsoever! The oath of office taken by law enforcement personnel should suffice to prevent this from occurring. ANYONE violating the code of ethics should be removed from service immediately and not allowed to serve in law enforcement ever again!
Absolutely
Garland must be quaking in his boots. One more letter in the wastebasket.