Dems See Weaponization in Trump Admin's Moves

Democrat lawmakers say several actions taken by the Trump administration's intelligence community and Department of Justice qualify as abuses of power and threaten to undermine the independence that has traditionally been afforded both agencies.

The FBI's commitment last week to assist the Texas state government in tracking down the runaway Democrat state House members came as the bureau terminated a number of agents, including those who had worked on cases related to President Donald Trump.

In a letter to FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Democrats asked for the legal authority being used to track down the Texas Democrats.

"These reports suggest that the FBI is diverting federal law enforcement away from fighting terrorism, drug trafficking, and other federal crimes to instead harass and target Texans' duly elected representatives, and thus raise urgent questions about the legal basis, scale, and appropriateness of federal law enforcement involvement in a state-level political matter," Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary committees, wrote.

Two other Texas Democrats in Congress, Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett, were also signatories on the letter.

They mentioned a 2003 decision from a state judge who ruled that the Texas Department of Public Safety had limited options in pursuing state residents who had not committed a crime.

"The ruling made clear that the state cannot treat quorum-breaking as a criminal offense subject to law enforcement pursuit," the group wrote.

The dismissal of several FBI career agents has also led to claims that the agency's leadership has violated civil servant protection and abused its power.

The Hill reported that Brian Driscoll, Steve Jensen, and Walter Giardina were among the agents fired. Driscoll declined to turn over the names of the agents who worked on the Jan. 6 cases to the Trump administration, while Jensen had recently been promoted to director of the Washington, D.C., field office. Giardina had worked on the prosecution of Peter Navarro and for special counsel Robert Mueller.

In a statement on Friday, the FBI Agents Association slammed the firings as unlawful.

"The FBI Agents Association strongly condemns today's unlawful firing of FBI Special Agents," the organization wrote. "These Agents were carrying out the assignments given to them and did their jobs professionally and with integrity."

The group added, "This action sets a dangerous precedent. It increases our vulnerability to criminal and national security threats at home and abroad. It prioritizes division over unity, stokes anger instead of solidarity within our ranks, and threatens to chill the work of agents rather than support it."

On Friday, the Justice Department issued a subpoena to New York Democrat Attorney General Letitia James for documents related to cases her office pursued against the National Rifle Association and the Trump Organization. Also on Friday, the DOJ named Ed Martin as special prosecutor to investigate allegations of mortgage fraud involving James and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

Through her attorney Abbe Lowell, James said she was being targeted as part of "the president's political retribution campaign."

"Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration," Lowell said in a statement obtained by The Hill. "If prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law."

Schiff, through his attorney Preet Bharara, called the allegations of mortgage fraud "transparently false, stale, and long debunked."

"Now, Ed Martin, the most brazenly partisan and politically compromised person possible for the task, has been picked to investigate a political adversary. The bias here is glaring," Bharara said.

"Mr. Martin is a Jan. 6-defending lawyer who has repeatedly pursued baseless and politically motivated investigations to fulfill demands to investigate and prosecute perceived enemies," Bharara continued. "Any supposed investigation led by him would be the very definition of weaponization of the justice process."

The DOJ opened a grand jury investigation on Monday into former Obama administration officials that it has accused of being involved in a "treasonous conspiracy" to push "manufactured intelligence" of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The Trump administration has maintained that such moves are necessary to counter the abuses of the previous Democrat administration, which it says used the FBI and the Justice Department to target Trump.

"President Trump is restoring integrity to the Department of Justice after four years of weaponization, hoaxes, and attempts to imprison him," White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement obtained by The Hill. "The DOJ is upholding Lady Justice and working to execute President Trump's Make America Safe Again agenda, which is lowering crime, holding criminals accountable, and empowering our law enforcement community."