The US Department of Justice (DOJ) is under increasing pressure from the Republicans to explain its rationale for raiding former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Monday.
Though neither Trump nor the DOJ has revealed the content of the search warrant, it appears to be connected to Trump’s failure to turn over some presidential records after previous searches resulted in retrieving classified information among the boxes of documents taken from Mar-a-Lago.
Already skeptical of the DOJ, House GOP leaders criticized the execution of the search warrant as politically motivated.
Pointing to the DOJ’s handling of the investigation of business activities of President Biden’s son Hunter and into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s possession of classified emails on a private server, Republicans also allege a double standard since Clinton wasn’t charged with any crime and the investigation of Hunter’s business activity is still ongoing.
Accusing the Biden Administration of weaponizing the DOJ against their political opponents, the House Republican Conference chair, Rep. Elise Stefanik, called the raid a dark day in American history.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has directed the attention at Attorney General Merrick Garland, pledging immediate oversight of the DOJ if GOP wins the House majority next year.
Advising him to preserve the documents and clear his calendar, McCarthy stressed that the DOJ has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization
As ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan argues that both FBI Director Christopher Wray and Garland should testify to his committee on Friday when the House will be back on Friday.
Trump’s own criticism of the government has been building GOP hostility toward the DOJ and the intelligence community ever since the 2016 presidential campaign when the FBI executed warrants – two of which the DOJ declared invalid later – to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
Republicans decried both the warrants and the FBI’s conduct.
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