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Mr. HAGERTY. What is the Biden- Harris Department of Justice focused on right now? Multiple prosecutions of former President Donald J. Trump.
Never before in history has a major American Presidential candidate been criminally charged, much less by his campaign opponent's Department of Justice. Yet, in the middle of this Presidential election, the Biden-Harris Justice Department has brought two different prosecutions against their Presidential election opponent. Other Democrat prosecutors have brought three other sets of charges. These cases have been timed to peak during the election.
So right now, President Biden's election opponent is on trial in five separate jurisdictions--all by partisan Democrat prosecutors, all on different charges, and all peaking right in the middle of this Presidential campaign. This begs a simple question: Is this coordinated election interference or is this merely a coincidence?
It is beyond credulity that these charges would have been brought against anyone but President Trump--especially five different prosecutions all brought during the Presidential election. The contortions of fact and law underlying these prosecutions testify to that.
So do the political campaign promises and Presidential commands behind the prosecutions underscore this? Of course they do.
The New York Times reported in April of 2022 that President Biden told advisers that he wanted his Justice Department to prosecute President Trump. Shortly thereafter, his Justice Department dutifully appointed Jack Smith to prosecute President Trump.
When Alvin Bragg ran for district attorney, he campaigned on getting Trump. He did just that, using a made-up, never-before-pursued theory.
When Letitia James ran for New York attorney general, she said that her entire campaign was about getting President Trump. Even Democrat Representative Dan Goldman called it ``an individualized political vendetta.'' Five years later, in the middle of the campaign, she brought a baseless case for a $454 million fine--unheard of. This is a case of ``show me the man, and I will show you the crime.'' It is also blatant election interference. It is outrageous to many Americans. It violates our basic principles of blind justice and the rule of law.
I am not going to consent to the expeditious confirmation of any more Biden Department of Justice nominees until the American people get a chance to reject this politicized administration of justice.
I will say this: If these nominees were truly important to Senate Democrats, they would schedule votes on them. Senate Democrats held me for 30 hours of cloture when I came through this process. They are not doing the same here.
Therefore, I would like to reserve the right to object, and I want to withhold my objection to allow the junior Senator from Missouri to be recognized.
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Mr. HAGERTY. If the Senator from Illinois would allow, I would just like to respond to two points regarding the politicization of the Justice Department.
One of them is the fact that Mr. Colangelo from the Department of Justice was moved to the State of New York to undertake subsequent State-level prosecutions. That is certainly deep involvement by this Department of Justice in the State-level prosecutions that has taken place here.
The other is the reference to the son of the sitting President and his prosecution. I will point out that this Department of Justice allowed and made certain that the statute of limitations on far more serious charges expired. That is politicization in the Department of Justice.
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