President Donald Trump has yet to name a nominee for his next attorney general, but congressional Democrats are making clear they intend to make things difficult for Todd Blanche, the former deputy attorney general now leading the Justice Department in an acting capacity.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, in a new letter is accusing Blanche of leveraging his “office to improperly shower government cash on Donald Trump’s political operatives and sycophants.”
Specifically, Raskin is alleging that Blanche — who is running the agency after Pam Bondi’s ouster — ordered the FBI to pay large sums to FBI agents accused of misconduct.
“The record definitively shows that the agents were not disciplined for making protected disclosures to Congress or for the imaginary offense of being a Republican,” Raskin wrote. “They were disciplined for reckless misuse of classified information or serious episodes of professional misconduct that endangered national security.”
For example, Raskin writes that the DOJ approved payments in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for someone who previously had his security clearance revoked after he was involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and misrepresented his actions to the FBI.
Judiciary Democrats did not provide supporting documentation for the sources of some of their claims. But Raskin argued the settlements underscore “broader pattern of the Trump Administration using the public fisc as a slush fund to reward its allies.”
He asked for a host of materials relevant to the Democratic investigation into the issue, and the request suggests that Democrats — should they retake the House in the midterms — could make the settlements a key part of their oversight activities in the next Congress.
A DOJ spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Raskin also alleged in his letter that staffers in the office of Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley were involved in talks around the settlements. The Iowa Republican’s office has previously said he played a role in the meditation of FBI “whistleblowers” settlements.
“This seven-page screed is a disgusting and defamatory attempt to smear legitimate whistleblowers while protecting their Biden administration retaliators,” said Clare Slattery, a spokesperson for Grassley. “Senator Grassley stands by his efforts to defend and protect all whistleblowers, no matter which administration they blow the whistle on, just as he has done for decades.”
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