Despite, at least in theory, being a part of the executive branch of the federal government, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) sees the Department of Justice as an entity that operates independently of the executive branch.
During an appearance on MSNBC on Friday, the Hawaii Democrat lawmaker insisted former President Donald Trump was still a threat to the country, which she said underscored a need for the Justice Department to have so-called “firewalls” apart from the executive branch.
“First of all, we need to make sure that the House can continue its January 6 investigation because all of this is part of Trump’s abuse of power and the fact that he didn’t think the rule of law applied to him,” she said. “The big lie is still being perpetuated. He is still having his rallies, all of that. That is not going away. He’s still trying to act as though he’s the president of the United States, which he isn’t. So the efforts to perpetrate the big lie are still happening. What can we do? We need to make sure that there are firewalls between the Justice Department and the executive branch. That’s supposed to be there, but not under Trump, because he viewed the Justice Department as his very own law firm.”
“And he pushed the acting attorney general to do his bidding,” Hirono continued. “That was refused. And he tried to replace the acting attorney general with his own guy, who, frankly, I never even heard of until all of this came to the public’s attention, this person named Jeff Clark, who actually did things like do his own investigations he had no authority to do. So, one of the major things we need to ensure is that the Department of Justice is not the president’s law firm. The independence of the Department of Justice is very critical. And if we have to pass some legislation to make that crystal clear, then that’s what we should consider doing.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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