Former Department of Justice (DOJ) official Gene Hamilton, the vice president and general counsel of America First Legal, said Friday that the DOJ is “flagrantly” violating the “Impermissible Considerations” clause of its own “Justice Manual” with the timing of federal indictments brought against former President Donald Trump and subsequent trial dates set in the middle of the Republican primary season.
Hamilton, who served as counselor to the attorney general under the Trump DOJ, detailed his argument while on a panel alongside former Acting Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah Brett Tolman, and John Malcolm, Vice President of the Institute for Constitutional Government. Particularly, Hamilton pointed to the timing of the federal indictments and trials brought against Trump, contending they breach the clause that pertains to “initiating and declining charges.”
Per a stream of the event accessed by Breitbart News, he explained the clause:
Impermissible Considerations: “In determining whether to commence or recommend prosecution or take other action against a person, the attorney for the government may not be influenced by the person’s race, religion, gender, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, or political association, activities or beliefs…. And then further, the section says, “In addition, federal prosecutors and agents may never, never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution or select the timing of investigative steps or criminal charges for the purpose of affecting any election or for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”
Hamilton emphasized his view that the timing of the cases — one alleging Trump illegally took classified documents with him to Mar-a-Lago at the end of his presidency and another alleging he, counsel, and aides committed federal crimes while challenging the 2020 election results — are in direct violation of the Impermissible Conditions clause of the Justice Manual.
Notably, the trial of the documents case is set to begin on May 20, 2024, amid the race for the Republican presidential nomination, the New York Times noted, while the case related to the 2020 election challenge is set for March 4, 2024, the eve of the momentous day in the primary season, Super Tuesday.
“Now, I’m sorry, but if you look at the timing of these indictments and you look at the timing of what they’re trying to do with the trial, and how they’re scheduling things in these cases, the Department of Justice is violating its very own policies flagrantly,” he said, before contending that the American people see “right through what they’re doing.”
He asserted:
But the American people outside of Washington, DC, if we transport this room, and we go to Sioux Falls, or we go to Savannah, Georgia, or we go anywhere across the country, and you sit down and you tell the American people, “Hey, these are the charges that we’re bringing against, you know, the President of the United States, what do you think?” You will be shocked at, on a bipartisan basis, how everybody sees right through what they’re doing. Nobody sees these as legitimate prosecutions.
He drew a dichotomy between the perceptions of the case between Americans across the country versus the elite ruling class in Washington, DC.
“In Washington DC, it very much is the case; oh gosh, you know, the chattering classes and in the Georgetown parties and everything else,” he explained. “Everyone wants to talk about, ‘Oh, did you see this allegation in the indictment? Did you see, oh, nuclear secrets, nuclear secrets.’”
“But everybody knows that this is being done for political purposes, each of the indictments, especially the federal ones,” Hamilton said.
He opined that the faith in the federal government among conservatives, who have been following the Trump proceedings, is “shot.”