Congressman Cohen Questions Attorney General Garland at Department of Justice Oversight Hearing

Statement

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today questioned Attorney General Merrick Garland at an oversight hearing on the Department of Justice.

Congressman Cohen asked the Attorney General whether any employees of the Department of Justice involved in promoting former president Donald Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign are still with the Department. He also suggested that the former president, identified in court documents in the Michael Cohen campaign finance case as "Individual One," should be prosecuted for his role in illegal payments to two women who claimed to have had affairs with the former president.

"Michael Cohen has a felony on his record, spent time in prison, for paying at the direction of President Trump hush money to Stormy Daniels and another woman. I believe that it's pretty well known that President Trump was "Individual One,' as described in the indictment. He couldn't be indicted because of the Department of Justice policy you don't indict a sitting president. He is no longer a sitting president. Do you believe that not looking into indicting "Individual One,' equally if not more guilty than Michael Cohen, is not an abuse of equal protection under the law and an abrogation of the idea that the rule of law is principal?"

Congressman Cohen also asked about the Department seeking to defend the former president in a defamation lawsuit. Attorney General Garland, citing departmental policy, explained his department's defense of Donald Trump under the Tort Claims Act and declined to discuss the possibility of ongoing criminal investigations of the former president.

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