{"id":36364,"date":"2025-03-18T19:59:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/california-sen-adam-schiff-changes-tune-on-doj-reams-increasingly-orwellian-leadership\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T19:59:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:59:37","slug":"california-sen-adam-schiff-changes-tune-on-doj-reams-increasingly-orwellian-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/18\/california-sen-adam-schiff-changes-tune-on-doj-reams-increasingly-orwellian-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"California Sen Adam Schiff changes tune on DOJ, reams increasingly ‘Orwellian’ leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Adam Schiff<\/a>, once a staunch defender of the Justice Department\u2019s independence, now warns it has become an \u2018Orwellian\u2019 tool for President Donald Trump and ripe for political abuse.<\/p>\n

The California Democrat and former U.S. prosecutor, who served four House terms before his election to the Senate last fall, has long been an outspoken Trump foe, using his former posts as chair of the House Oversight Committee and impeachment probes to urge a more independent-minded Justice Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The rule of law is a core foundation of our nation,” Schiff previously told Time Magazine during Trump’s first term in office. “No one, not even the president, is above it.”<\/p>\n

Schiff once served as a federal prosecutor at the Justice Department, where he helped successfully convict an ex-FBI agent on charges of spying for the Soviet Union. Throughout his later service in the House, he repeatedly defended the Justice Department as independent-minded and asserted that its career officials operate above the political fray.\u00a0<\/p>\n

TRUMP ASKS SUPREME COURT TO REVIEW BAN ON BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

He also chided his Republican colleagues who, in his view, too harshly criticized the agency, warning them that doing so could lead to an erosion of trust.<\/p>\n

Fewer than four years later, however, Schiff is singing a different tune.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now in the Senate, the California Democrat is one of the most vocal critics, sounding the alarm about Trump’s efforts to reform the Justice <\/a>Department <\/a>to his liking.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Monday, he pushed back against Trump’s claim that he and other members of the House committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot could be subject to “investigation at the highest level,” as the president threatened in a Truth Social post.<\/p>\n

“The members of the Jan 6 Committee are all proud of our work,” Schiff wrote on X, in response to Trump’s remarks. “Your threats will not intimidate us. Or silence us.”<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Schiff took aim at the current leadership of the Justice Department in a blistering floor speech, noting that the DOJ\u2019s three\u00a0most senior officials, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi<\/a>, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and John Sauer, all formerly represented Trump in criminal court proceedings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By so frequently claiming the Justice Department has been improperly “weaponized” against him, Schiff said, Trump has arguably given his officials a green light, “in Orwellian fashion, to do what they have accused others of doing,” which is “to weaponize the department. \u2026 To use the department as a sword and as a shield.”<\/p>\n

WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY DEFENDS TRUMP’S FIRING OF INSPECTORS GENERAL<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Schiff also blasted the Supreme Court decision last <\/u><\/a>August<\/u><\/a> that expanded the view of presidential immunity \u2013 a ruling, he said, that “has turbocharged the ability to weaponize the Department of Justice by a president who wishes to use it for that purpose.”<\/p>\n

Last month, Schiff joined other Democrats on the panel in urging the administration to turn over information that prompted their decision to remove or reassign dozens of career Justice Department officials and FBI personnel.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lawmakers also cited concerns about a sprawling questionnaire sent by Justice Department officials to thousands of FBI agents and supervisors<\/a> in January asking detailed questions about their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot investigation.<\/p>\n

FBI AGENTS GROUP TELLS CONGRESS TO TAKE URGENT ACTION TO PROTECT AGAINST POLITICIZATION<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

That questionnaire is also the subject of a lawsuit filed this year by current and former FBI agents, who are seeking to head off any retaliation or discriminatory action against personnel involved in the Jan. 6 probe. A judge is expected to hear from both parties in court later this month.<\/p>\n

Most recently, Trump attempted to strip security clearances and access to federal government buildings for all Perkins Coie employees, a law firm he sees as opposed to his political agenda, prompting a federal judge to step in and block the order.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“An American President is not a king \u2013 not even an ‘elected’ one \u2013 and his power to remove federal officers and honest civil servants like plaintiff is not absolute,” U.S. District Court Judge Beryl Howell wrote in a court order this month that blocked one of Trump\u2019s executive orders from taking force.<\/p>\n

Schiff, for his part, appears to share that view.<\/p>\n

“There could be no more frontal assault on the post-Watergate policy of having some division between the White House and the Justice Department than the Supreme Court of the United States saying, \u2018Break down that wall. Use the department any way you wish. Create cases where there\u2019s no evidence. Dismiss cases where there\u2019s plenty of evidence. And you will never face accountability. No matter how corrupt a motive,'” Schiff said this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reached for comment about his evolving views on the Justice Department, Schiff’s office pointed Fox News Digital to his previous remarks, including a February interview on MSNBC\u2019s “The Last Word with Lawrence O\u2019Donnell.” Asked about his claims that Trump has weaponized the Justice Department \u2013 and the severity of the issue \u2013 Schiff responded, “We\u2019ve had a debate about what level of constitutional crisis we\u2019re in, and frankly, I think we\u2019re already there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Adam Schiff, once a staunch defender of the Justice Department\u2019s independence, now warns it has become an \u2018Orwellian\u2019 tool for President Donald Trump and ripe for political abuse. The California Democrat and former U.S. prosecutor, who served four House terms before his election to the Senate last fall, has long been an outspoken Trump … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}