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  • (DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) -- 2024-08-30 JDJ to Garland Re Superseding Indictment

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    (DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) -- 2024-08-30 JDJ to Garland Re Superseding Indictment

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    13K views3 pages

    (DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) -- 2024-08-30 JDJ to Garland Re Superseding Indictment

    Uploaded by

    Henry Rodgers
    (DAILY CALLER OBTAINED) -- 2024-08-30 JDJ to Garland Re Superseding Indictment

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 3

    August 30, 2024

    The Honorable Merrick B. Garland


    Attorney General
    U.S. Department of Justice
    950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
    Washington, DC 20530

    Dear Attorney General Garland:

    On July 1, 2024, the Supreme Court of the United States issued an opinion in Trump v.
    United States, explaining the parameters of presidential immunity and rebuking Special Counsel
    Jack Smith for violating this Constitutional principle in his political prosecution of President
    Donald J. Trump.1 On August 27, 2024, Special Counsel Smith obtained a superseding
    indictment against President Trump in an attempt to fix the constitutional defects inherent in his
    initial indictment.2 In doing so, however, Special Counsel Smith appears to have violated
    longstanding Department policy intended to protect our democratic processes. The Committee
    must therefore understand whether you approved Special Counsel Smith’s indictment in advance
    or whether Special Counsel Smith continues to exercise prosecutorial authority without your
    “meaningful direction or supervision.”3

    Across administrations of both parties, the Department has attempted to safeguard the
    sanctity of the electoral process by adhering to a “60-day rule,” under which federal prosecutors
    avoid “the return of indictments against a candidate for office within 60 days of a primary or
    general election.”4 Although not formally codified, there is wide acceptance that the 60-day rule
    is critical to protecting the integrity of the electoral process.5 Notably, some senior Department
    officials have extended the prohibition beyond 60 days.6 Former Deputy Attorney General Sally
    Yates told the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, “To me if it were 90 days

    1
    Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024).
    2
    Superseding Indictment, United States v. Trump, No. 23-cr-257 (D.D.C. Aug. 27, 2024).
    3
    See United States v. Trump, No. 23-cr-80101-AMC, at 75 (S.D. Fla. July 15, 2024).
    4
    OFF. OF THE INSPECTOR GEN, U.S. DEP’T OF JUST., A REVIEW OF VARIOUS ACTIONS BY THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF
    INVESTIGATION AND DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE IN ADVANCE OF THE 2016 ELECTION, at 17 (2018) [hereinafter “OIG
    REPORT”].
    5
    See id.; see also Eric Holder, Opinion, James Comey is a good man, but he made a serious mistake, WASH. POST
    (Oct. 30, 2016) (venerating the policy as part of “long-standing Justice Department policies and tradition”).
    6
    OIG REPORT, supra note 4, at 18.
    The Honorable Merrick B. Garland
    August 30, 2024
    Page 2

    off, and you think it has a significant chance of impacting an election, unless there’s a reason you
    need to take that action now you don’t do it.”7 Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch affirmed
    that “in general, the practice has been not to take actions that might have an impact on an
    election . . . .”8

    Special Counsel Smith obtained the superseding indictment against President Trump just
    10 days before early voting begins in some states.9 There can be little question that the
    superseding indictment has some effect on the election, especially coming after the Supreme
    Court’s opinion on presidential immunity cast significant doubt on Special Counsel Smith’s
    ability to prosecute the initial indictment.10 In light of the Court’s opinion, Smith’s superseding
    indictment amounts to the initiation of a prosecutorial action by the Biden-Harris Administration
    against its opponent in the upcoming election. There is no persuasive argument why Special
    Counsel Smith could not wait until after the election to file this superseding indictment. It is
    therefore difficult to believe that the superseding indictment was filed now for any purpose other
    than to affect the outcome of the election.

    Special Counsel Smith’s superseding indictment presents two stark conclusions. One, that
    as Special Counsel Smith’s supervisor, you approved the indictment, knowingly violating the
    Department’s policy counseling against such a prosecutorial action and doing so to harm the
    electoral opponent of your political bosses. Or, two, that Special Counsel Smith acted without
    your approval, reinforcing Judge Aileen Cannon’s observation that “Mr. Smith is a private
    citizen exercising the full power of a United States Attorney, and with very little oversight or
    supervision.”11 In other words, either you are personally weaponizing the Department of Justice
    against President Trump or Special Counsel Smith is continuing his unconstitutional prosecution
    against President Trump—but either option does not reflect well upon you or your commitment
    to the rule of law in the United States.

    The unprecedented nature of Special Counsel Smith’s superseding indictment demands


    prompt attention from the Committee. Accordingly, to further the Committee’s oversight of the
    Department, we require the following documents and information for the period from January 1,
    2024, to the present:

    1. All documents and communications between Main Justice, including but not limited to
    the Office of the Attorney General, and Special Counsel Smith’s office referring or
    relating to the superseding indictment filed against President Trump on August 27, 2024.

    7
    Id.
    8
    Id.
    9
    See Kellianne Jones et al., With 9 days until voting starts, 'election season' kicks off sooner than you think, FOX
    NEWS (last updated Aug. 28, 2024) (stating that early voting begins as soon as September 6, when several states
    begin distributing mail-in ballots); Ready or not, election season in the US starts soon. The first ballots will go out in
    just two weeks, ASSOCIATED PRESS (Aug. 23, 2024).
    10
    See, e.g., Josh Blackman, The Presidential Immunity Trichotomy, VOLOKH CONSPIRACY (July 4, 2024).
    11
    United States v. Trump, No. 23-cr-80101-AMC, at 41 (S.D. Fla. July 15, 2024).
    The Honorable Merrick B. Garland
    August 30, 2024
    Page 3

    2. Did you personally approve the superseding indictment filed against President Trump on
    August 27, 2024? If so, please provide documentation sufficient to reflect your approval.

    3. Did you evaluate the superseding indictment against President Trump in the context of
    the Department’s longstanding policy counseling against prosecutorial action so near an
    election? If so, please provide documentation sufficient to reflect your evaluation of these
    issues.

    Please produce all documents and information as soon as possible but no later than 5:00
    p.m. on September 13, 2024. The Judiciary Committee has legislative and oversight jurisdiction
    over the Department of Justice pursuant to Rule X of the Rules of the House of
    Representatives.12 If you have any questions about this matter, please ask your staff to contact
    Committee staff at (202) 225-6906.

    Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Jim Jordan
    Chairman

    cc: The Honorable Jerrold L. Nadler, Ranking Member

    12
    Rules of the House of Representatives, R. X, 118th Cong. (2023).

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