Sen. John Kennedy recently exposed what has occurred under the watch of outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland over the past few years. Kennedy’s bombshell comments came during President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi’s Senate confirmation hearing, in which the Louisiana Republican urged her to oust the bad actors within the federal government and “get rid of them.”
However, Kennedy acknowledged that there were many good, honest people within the Department of Justice, citing numerous high-profile criminals the agency had helped send to prison. Demonstrating that the DOJ isn’t completely worthless, as many conservatives claim it was weaponized against Trump, the GOP senator pointed to the arrests of Sam Bankman Fried and Michael Avenatti.
“Can we agree that there’s some really, really good men and women at the Department of Justice?” Kennedy asked Bondi, to which she replied, “Many, many great men and women in the Justice Department as well. Senator, in all the law enforcement agencies that fall within the Department of Justice, they’re out there risking their lives, especially the law enforcement office in every single day.”
Nonetheless, Kennedy emphasized that there is some degree of corruption within the Justice Department. “Can we agree, though, that there, there have been, and maybe today, some bad people at the Department of
Justice?” Bondi answered,”Yes, Senator.” Expounding on this point, Kennedy suggested that, under the Biden administration, a small group of bad actors have shaken institutional faith.
Kennedy asserted that what has occurred in the DOJ in recent years is entirely unprecedented. “We don’t know for sure, because for the last four years, the curtains there have been tightly drawn, but I think some, a minority of people there have delegitimized America’s criminal justice system the most destabilizing act that I saw in the past four years, maybe in the history of the department,” he said.
Directly calling out Attorney General Merrick Garland, Kennedy claimed he utilized “dubious facts and untested legal theories to criminally prosecute former president of the United States.” Implying Garland’s DOJ was weaponized against Trump, Kennedy argued, “He decided to do it after the former president of the United States had announced that he was going to run against Attorney General Garland’s boss, didn’t he?”
Bondi asked Kennedy, “Senator, are you referring to going after a political opponent?” The Louisiana Republican replied, “I think so.” Kennedy maintained that such political persecution had never occurred in the United States, explaining the dangerous precedent it had set for both parties where endless legal warfare could ensue.
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“There are a lot of ambitious prosecutors in America, Democrat and Republican, and I bet you right now there’s some prosecutor in a particular state thinking about, well, maybe I ought to file criminal charges against President Biden’s inner circle for conspiring the site to conceal his mental decline,” Kennedy continued. “And that’s the road we’re headed down.”
Concluding his remarks, Kennedy told Bondi, “You’ve got to fix it … and here’s what, in my judgment, what I would ask you to do. Find out who the bad guys are and the bad women and get rid of them, find out who the good people are and lift them up.” However, he emphasized that it must be done “on the basis of facts and evidence and fairness.”
Watch Kennedy and Bondi below:
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.