Republican Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) has told Merrick Garland to go pound sand in response to the attorney general’s efforts to try and silence federal whistleblowers.
Sen. Cotton sent a message to all FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials that they should ignore Garland’s attempts to muzzle whistleblowers.
Cotton assures Justice Department officials that they are “protected by federal law” if they choose to blow the whistle.
“DOJ employees, take notice: No matter what this memo says, you are protected by federal law if you contact my office to blow the whistle on the improper politicization of the Department of Justice by Merrick Garland and Joe Biden,” the senator said.
Garland recently issued a memo to Justice Department employees telling them not to talk to Congress.
Garland said all communication with Congress must be handled by the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) and that “no department employee may communicate with Senators, Representatives, congressional committees, or congressional staff without advance coordination, consultation, and approval by OLA.
“All congressional inquiries and correspondence from Members, committees, and staff should be immediately directed to OLA upon receipt.”
Garland continued saying the policies are in place to protect the DOJ’s “criminal and civil law enforcement decisions, and its legal judgments, from partisan or other inappropriate influences, whether real or perceived, direct or indict.”
He added that the policies are not “intended to conflict with or limit whistleblower protections.”
DOJ employees, take notice: No matter what this memo says, you are protected by federal law if you contact my office to blow the whistle on the improper politicization of the Department of Justice by Merrick Garland and Joe Biden. https://t.co/agu5RJwos8
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) August 31, 2022
This comes after whistleblowers dropped the dime on the political bias at the DOJ to Republican members of Congress.
As Slay News previously reported, Tim Thibault, an assistant special agent, retired over allegations he helped bury Hunter Biden’s laptop story.
“He firmly believes that any investigation will conclude that his supervision, leadership, and decision making were not impacted by political bias or partisanship of any kind,” Thibault’s lawyer said.
“He is confident that all of his decisions were consistent with the FBI’s highest standards for ethics and integrity.”