On Tuesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland banned political Justice Department appointees from participating in campaign events in any form.
Previously, a DOJ policy permitted political appointees to attend partisan events in their personal capacities on occasion if they participated passively and obtained prior approval.
The Hill reports:
“We must do all we can to maintain public trust and ensure that politics — both in fact and appearance — does not compromise or affect the integrity of our work,” Garland wrote in a memo to department employees.
“I know you agree it is critical that we hold ourselves to the highest ethical standards to avoid even the appearance of political influence as we carry out the Department's mission,” he wrote. “It is in that spirit that I have added these new restrictions on political activities by non-career employees.”
The policy change comes on the heels of accusations AG Garland signed off on the FBI's decision to raid former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. Republicans, including the former President, have accused the DOJ of acting on political bias with the raid and other investigations. (RELATED: AG Garland Confirms He ‘Personally Approved' Mar-a-Lago Search Warrant)
Earlier this month FBI officials raided Mar-a-Lago to recover sensitive materials from the White House. The search signaled a distinct escalation into the probe of Trump's handling of the classified White House materials.
According to the recently published affidavit over 184 documents were found containing classified information in the first 15 boxes, including 25 marked top secret. (RELATED: Justice Department Releases Redacted Affidavit From Trump Mar-a-Lago Raid)
Following the infamous raid, Trump's legal team requested a special master be appointed to independently review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago.
“The documents seized at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8, 2022, were seized from President Trump and were created during his term as president. Accordingly, the documents are presumptively privileged until proven otherwise,” Trump's attorneys argued last week. “Only an evaluation by a neutral reviewer, a special master, can secure the sanctity of these privileged materials.”
What integrity???
A BS Cover.
Its too late Merrick
Him and 10 below him resign immediately No retirement No nothing then there might be .001 integrity
I would like to see what documents Clinton/ Obama / Bush/ Kept? Why just Trump?
Because if Trump survives and wins, he will get even and they cannot risk any further free speech or elections, as in Putin’s Russia. Many of the oligarchs, senior bureaucrats, and politicians have earned long jail sentences for their decades of deception and corruption. They must be terrified of the truth.
When the senior bureaucracy, the oligarchs, and the politicians control most of the media, as in Russia, do personal appearances at events matter any longer?
Running for cover.
Like the theives they are
Would it not have been better to enforce political corruption laws?
Charles Nolan, agree with your observation 100%. I would like to add to your line of thinking…. Seems they have painted themselves into a corner. If Trump runs and wins, there will be hell to pay (True). However, if they are successful at preventing Trump from running, there will also be hell to pay from public opinion (or worse, plain revolt). All in all, my opinion is they are playing with fire and they don’t care. It’s a lose/lose situation for them. But, that doesn’t mean a win for us (US). As an actor playing a US soldier in WWII once said “It’s a God awful $hitty mess”, and guess who created it. And it may take a long time to clean it up.
Hmm. Integrity? Where has that been since 2017? Liberals claim that the Deep State is just a conspiracy theory.
But, Associated Press: 17 May 2020 Headline: “Obama criticizes virus response during online graduation speech.“ The AP article stated that Obama made the comments during an online graduation speech, and a few sentences further, the AP stated Obama also made the remarks during a routine conference call “with 3000 members of his administration.” He’s been out of the White house since 2017, but conducts conference calls with 3000 people who identify as members of his administration! The AP did not pursue it, but, it is only logical to assume that most of the 3000 are still in Federal Civil Service and the Military, though some may be in the media now. They worked hard to undermine Trump, just as they are working hard to prop up Biden & his crew.
Conference calls with 3000 people require a significant amount of planning, coordination, support, and infrastructure. That means a lot of people who know about it intentionally look the other way, happily join in.
“We must do all we can to maintain public trust and ensure that politics — both in fact and appearance — does not compromise or affect the integrity of our work,” Oops, too late, Garland. Any public trust in the FBI has been destroyed forever.
MAINTAIN public trust? Are you KIDDING? You’ve lost it now.