Justice Chairman Dick Durbin sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, saying: “These reported allegations show stunning and unacceptable departures from the Department’s mission to pursue impartial justice, which requires that its prosecutorial decisions be free of politics influence”. “They also float the already serious concerns raised by then-Attorney General Barr’s efforts in 2020 to replace Mr. Berman with a Trump loyalist,” the Illinois Democrat wrote. “If accurate, Mr. Berman’s allegations indicate multiple instances of political interference in the Department’s investigative and prosecutorial decisions,” he wrote. “The Senate Judiciary Committee will investigate these incidents.” Durbin also asked the Justice Department to provide the committee with several documents and communications by Oct. 3. Welcoming the committee’s investigation, Berman told MSNBC Monday night, “I think we need to shine a light on this kind of egregious behavior that has really corrupted the Justice Department and turned it into a political instrument for the president.” He explained why he wrote the book — “Holding the Line,” due out Tuesday — saying he “wanted people to understand the full extent of the Trump Justice Department’s outrageous and inappropriate political interference in Southern affairs. New York”. “It demonstrates what Trump is capable of and what he is likely to do, and it also provides a first glimpse of how vulnerable our justice system is,” he said. CNN’s Manu Raju contributed to this report.
