Congressman Ted Lieu calls for Merrick Garland to clean house
In spite of a whole lot of fear mongering about him from liberal pundits this week, Attorney General Merrick Garland isn’t some kind of villain. In fact his press conference about voting rights today showed how aggressive he plans to be with his behind the scenes efforts to enforce the law. But in light of this new bombshell scandal about the Trump-era DOJ having illegally spied on the personal data of multiple House Democrats and their families, Garland does have a fire to put out.
Garland’s DOJ did take an important first step today when the Deputy Attorney General (surely in consultation with Garland) announced that she’s asking the DOJ Inspector General to launch an investigation into the scandal. This will determine who in the DOJ violated which policies and must be fired, along with who in the DOJ violated the law and must be prosecuted. But it’s only a start.
Congresman Ted Lieu appeared on the Nicolle Wallace show on MSNBC today and called upon Merrick Garland to “clean house” when it comes to any DOJ officials who participated in the spying scandal and are still at the DOJ. This can be done by suspending everyone in proximity to the scandal until the Inspector General has sorted out who specifically was responsible.
Ted Lieu is right. There is every reason to believe in Merrick Garland. But now he has yet another mess on his hands, and it’s one he’ll have to sort out in rather aggressive fashion. There are no magic wands that can instantly clean up this kind of mess. But as this scandal and probe unfolds, we’ll learn a lot about what Garland is made of.
