Conservatives are urging Republicans in the U.S. Senate to oppose confirming Judge Merrick Garland for U.S. attorney general. A memo signed by dozens of conservatives details the primary reasons conservatives are urging Republican senators to oppose Garland’s nomination in the upcoming floor vote. Conservatives are focusing largely on Garland refusing to explicitly condemn “disturbing comments from would-be colleagues at the Department of Justice,” specifically: Vanita Gupta, nominated to be the associate attorney general, has asserted that any pro-life advocate is unfit for office and that Republicans seek to leave communities “at the mercy of people and institutions driven by hate, bigotry and fear of any threat to the status quo.” Garland responded by saying he regards Gupta as “a person of great integrity and a person who is dedicated to the mission of the department.” Kristen Clarke, the nominee to head the Civil Rights Division at DOJ, has written that black people are genetically superior to white people. Garland was unable or unwilling to condemn the remarks, asserting “I do not believe . . . she is discriminatory in any sense.” Gupta’s and Clarke’s statements, the conservative memo reads, are “clearly discriminatory and inappropriate.” They argue that Garland did not sufficiently acknowledge that fact. “Garland’s inability to acknowledge this – and, in fact, his reflexive defense of them – raise serious questions about his judgment and how he intends to manage the equal application of the law,” conservatives said. “We are living in a political environment where the Democratic party intends to use every lever of law and government to persecute their political opponents, and to legalize racism through the implementation of group rights. This is anathema to our nation’s founding ideals, as well as to the rule of law,” they continued, also highlighting a key moment from Garland’s confirmation hearing: During his confirmation hearing, Garland ...
Merrick garland
Judiciary Committee greenlights Garland’s AG nomination
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Monday to approve Merrick Garland Merrick Brian Garland Judiciary Committee greenlights Garland's AG nomination Watch live: Senate panel votes on Biden's attorney general nominee This week: Senate takes up coronavirus relief after minimum wage setback MORE ’s nomination for attorney general, teeing him up to be confirmed by the Senate as soon as this week. The panel voted 15-7 in favor of President Biden Joe Biden Senate Democrats negotiating changes to coronavirus bill Rural Americans are the future of the clean energy economy — policymakers must to catch up WHO official says it's 'premature' to think pandemic will be over by end of year MORE ’s pick to lead the Justice Department. GOP Sens. Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway Lee GOP senators question Amazon on removal of book about 'transgender moment' Judiciary Committee greenlights Garland's AG nomination CPAC, all-in for Trump, is not what it used to be MORE (Utah), Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward Cruz Supreme Court faces landmark challenge on voting rights Trump: 'I can't imagine' any Republican would beat me in 2024 primary if I run Poll shows most GOP voters back Trump 2024 bid MORE (Texas), Ben Sasse Ben Sasse Judiciary Committee greenlights Garland's AG nomination Kinzinger: GOP 'certainly not united' on 'vision for the future' Sasse rebuked by Nebraska Republican Party over impeachment vote MORE (Neb.), Josh Hawley Joshua (Josh) David Hawley GOP senators question Amazon on removal of book about 'transgender moment' Scarborough tears into 'Ivy League brats' Cruz, Hawley for attacking 'elites' No. 2 Senate Democrat shoots down overruling parliamentarian on minimum wage MORE (Mo.), Tom Cotton Tom Bryant Cotton Scarborough tears into 'Ivy League brats' Cruz, Hawley for attacking 'elites' Judiciary Committee greenlights Garland's ...
WATCH: Chuck Grassley Calls Out Democrat Lawyer Marc Elias in Garland Vote
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called out Democrat lawyer Marc Elias on Monday in a speech explaining his vote on the confirmation of Judge Merrick Garland as U.S. Attorney General. Though Grassley noted that he intended to vote for Garland, he expressed reservations about the judge’s evasions on whether he would retain Special Counsel John Durham, and about the intentions of congressional Democrats to turn the Department of Justice into a partisan organization. “[Garland] will be under tremendous pressure from within the administration, and particularly from pressure from congressional Democrats, to turn the Justice Department into Marc Elias and the ACLU, and do it with each of them having guns,” Grassley said. “It will be up to him to keep the Justice Department from turning into the Social Justice Department.” Elias was the Democrats’ main election lawyer in 2020, and is currently representing Democrat Rita Hart in Iowa’s 2nd congressional district. Hart lost by six votes to Republican Marianette Miller-Meeks, and is asking the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives to overturn the election result. Apparently, @ChuckGrassley is concerned that Congress will force Merrick Garland to turn DOJ over to me and that I will have guns.ὄ pic.twitter.com/xYAY73MpuD — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) March 1, 2021 Mockery notwithstanding, Elias helped fund the fraudulent Russia “dossier” on then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016. The forgery made its way to the Department of Justice and was used as a basis for renewing a surveillance warrant on Trump aide Carter Page. Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is How Not to Be a Sh!thole Country: Lessons from South Africa . His recent book, RED NOVEMBER , tells the ...
Watchdog Reviews Complaint about FBI Surveillance Warrant
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department's internal watchdog is reviewing a former Boeing engineer's allegations that he was unfairly investigated by the FBI on suspicion that he was spying for China, according to correspondence and court filings reviewed by The Associated Press. It's the latest challenge related to secretive surveillance powers used in some terrorism and espionage cases. The inspector general review is unfolding amid broader scrutiny of the FBI's process for applying for court-authorized surveillance in national security investigations. Errors in applications Concerns about the accuracy of surveillance applications sought under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, were a prominent theme in Monday's confirmation hearing of attorney general nominee Merrick Garland. Under repeated questioning from Republican senators, Garland stressed his belief in the need to be "careful" and precise in representations made in applications. At issue in this case is a warrant the FBI obtained in 2014 from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to search the computers of Keith Gartenlaub as agents investigated whether he had leaked to the Chinese design plans for a C-17 military transport plane. Gartenlaub was never charged with any espionage-related crimes, but the Justice Department did bring child pornography charges after finding images on his hard drive. He was convicted in federal court in California and sentenced to more than three years in prison. He has long maintained his innocence, insisting that the files were not his, were never opened and date to a period in his life when numerous people had access to his computer while he lived at a beach house. In any event, he argues, the FBI had no basis to search his computers in the first place since there was no evidence he had conspired with China. Having now completed his sentence, he sued last year to vacate his conviction and his lifetime probation, alleging that he was ...
BARR: It’s Official — Our Nation’s Capital Has Transitioned To Alice In Wonderland
As recounted by Lewis Carroll in his timeless parody “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Alice discovers her surroundings to be “curiouser and curiouser.” In many ways, the fictitious world conjured by Carroll more than a century and a half ago aptly describes the state of affairs in our nation’s capital after only the first weeks of the Biden Administration. The speed with which the new administration and its Democrat cohorts in both houses of the Congress are undermining substantive historic and common-sense norms of behavior and law, is deeply disturbing. For nearly two months now, since the violence on Capitol Hill in early January, Washington, D.C., has been turned into an armed compound. Thousands of armed military personnel patrol its streets, and miles of razor wire and metal fencing encircle the Capitol building itself and several blocks in every direction. This militarization of the Capitol, clearly with the approval of the president himself, is not only unprecedented but pointless from a substantive security standpoint, insofar as no threat as might come close to warrant such massive response has been cited and no evidence in support thereof has been produced. But what has been happening inside that secured perimeter is stranger still. Just last week, for example, Merrick Garland, nominated by Biden to serve as the next attorney general of the United States, stated with quite a straight face that he simply was unable to decide whether the act of entering our country illegally should remain an unlawful act. Other matters clearly appropriate on which a nominee for this high office would have views, confounded him as well. At the very same confirmation hearing at which he could not state with certainty whether an illegal act should remain an illegal act, Garland declared that during his past 24 years as a federal judge leading to his being on the threshold of becoming our country’s 86th attorney general, he had never given sufficient ...