(PatrioticPost.com)- The fallout at the Department of Justice has begun.
On Monday, The Associated Press reported that John Demers, who serves as the assistant attorney general of the national security division at the DOJ, has resigned his post and will depart at the end of next week.
While Demers was sworn into his position after the subpoenas for various records of Democrats were issued, he was still appointed under former President Donald Trump. He was one of the few people who Trump appointed that was still around under the Biden administration, but that now has apparently changed.
The announcement was made on the same day that Attorney General Merrick Garland said the DOJ would tighten rules regarding obtaining the records of members of Congress.
As he said in a statement:
“Consistent with our commitment to the rule of law, we must ensure that full weight is accorded to separation-of-powers concerns moving forward.
“While that review is pending, I have instructed the Deputy Attorney General, who is already working on surfacing potentially problematic matters deserving high level review, to evaluate and strengthen the department’s existing policies and procedures for obtaining records of the Legislative branch.”
The DOJ is coming under new scrutiny for how it handled leak investigations that were initiated when Trump was president. News came out last week that the DOJ under Trump subpoenaed records from both Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell.
Schiff is the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, on which Swalwell also serves.
In addition to the two California Democrats, subpoenas were issued for the metadata for journalists from three separate media outlets, and Don McGahn, the former White House counsel.
At the time the metadata was subpoenaed in 2018, the House Intelligence Committee was investigating Trump’s interaction and involvement with Russia. Republicans had control of the panel at the time, but Schiff was the top-ranking Democrat on the panel.
Gag orders were then issued to the tech companies to whom the subpoenas were issued, which prevented them from either making the subpoenas public or alerting those whose data was being accessed. That meant Apple Inc. had to turn over the metadata, but couldn’t tell Schiff, Swalwell and others that their data was being turned over.
This practice hasn’t stopped under President Joe Biden, though. The DOJ has continued to pursue gag orders against various media companies, in an attempt to block them from alerting the subjects of investigations.
Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was joined by Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in seeking to have Demers testify before the committee. They also wanted former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr testify before them.
Who knows what will happen now that Demers has stepped down from his post. Even though he won’t be serving in Washington anymore, that won’t necessarily preclude the Judiciary Committee from forcing him to testify. Sessions and Barr aren’t serving any more either, after all.
