“The Committee on the Judiciary continues to conduct oversight of political bias and politicization within the Department of Justice. During your tenure as Attorney General, the Department has generally refused to release details about so-called ‘manifestos’ written by the perpetrators of high-profile crimes. Yet, earlier this week, in a public court filing, the Department released a letter in which the man who sought to assassinate President Donald J. Trump in Florida on September 15, 2024, offered a $150,000 bounty on President Trump. This decision seems to contravene the Department’s stated policy that ‘public access to legacy tokens,’ more commonly known as manifestos, ‘will contribute to further attacks’ by ‘spark[ing] incredibly intense interest and study’ by potential copycat offenders and providing a blueprint for future attackers.
“The Department’s decision to broadcast the attempted assassin’s bounty on President Trump—at the same time that the Department is aggressively and unconstitutionally prosecuting President Trump—raises significant concern that the Department could cause additional harm to occur. To further the Committee’s ongoing oversight to ensure that the Justice Department is upholding its standard of impartiality, we request the following documents:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to the FBI’s May 2023 ‘Protection of Legacy Tokens’ memorandum; and
2. All documents and communications referring or relating to the release of the would-be assassin’s letter to ‘The World’ as part of the Department’s Written Factual Proffer in Support of Pretrial Detention filed on September 23, 2024.”
Read the full letter to AG Garland here.
