Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee repeatedly invoked former President Donald Trump and his aides during a hearing addressing alleged Justice Department misconduct in its investigations of Hunter Biden.
House Republicans called the hearing to hear from Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler, who allege that DOJ political appointees stonewalled their investigation into the president’s son. Several Democrats on the committee, however, repeatedly pivoted to Trump’s alleged political interference at the DOJ. They mentioned his pardoning of former advisers Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Michael Flynn.
“President Biden’s traditional unscrupulous respect for the independence of the Justice Department stands in sharp contrast to Trump’s spectacular disrespect for the rule of law and his serial efforts, both in office and outside office, to get prosecutors to go after and lock up his political rivals and to suspend accountability in specific criminal cases when it comes to his friends,” ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland said.
“When Michael Flynn was investigated for lying to the FBI and later convicted for it about communicating with the Russians, or when Paul Manafort was investigated and later convicted for bank and tax fraud or when Roger Stone was investigated and later convicted for lying to Congress and witness tampering, an outraged President Trump repeatedly denounced the Department of Justice for prosecuting his cronies and reportedly got Attorney General William Barr to pressure prosecutors to recommend more leniency in their cases,” he continued.
via joemiller