Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday announced a significant update to the Department of Justice’s policies regarding bans on political involvement amid allegations of bias at the agency.
“Although longstanding Department policy has permitted non-career appointees to attend partisan political events, e.g., fundraisers and campaign events, in their personal capacities if they participated passively and obtained prior approval, under the new policy, non-career appointees may not participate in any partisan political event in any capacity,” Garland said in a memo (pdf).
The attorney general did not make any references to any specific Department of Justice (DOJ) employees or incidents.
Garland said previous DOJ policies had “allowed non-career employees to passively attend campaign events and other partisan political events in their personal capacities on the evening of Election Day.”
“In the past, when the Department has further limited attendance at partisan political events during Presidential election years, it has allowed an exception for non-career appointees who had close family members who were running for partisan offices, or similar situations,” Garland said. “The new policy permits no exceptions.”
But now, he declared, “non-career appointees may not attend partisan political events, even on the evening of Election Day.”
His letter comes as it was reported that a top-level FBI special agent resigned in recent days following whistleblower complaints that were documented by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). In a statement from Grassley Tuesday, he accused the now-departed FBI agent, Timothy Thibault, of having a political bias against former President Donald Trump.
Republicans and Trump also are accusing the DOJ and FBI of carrying out a politicized raid on his Mar-a-Lago home earlier this month in a bid to sway voters away from Republicans and Trump-backed candidates ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. They’ve also said the DOJ has displayed a double standard in how it handles Trump and cases involving Hunter Biden and its inquiry into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s handling of an email server.
