{"id":937,"date":"2026-07-16T12:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=937"},"modified":"2026-07-16T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T12:08:14","slug":"tillis-doesnt-understand-difference-between-bidens-weaponized-doj-and-trumps-pursuit-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertytransitionmedia.com\/?p=937","title":{"rendered":"Tillis Doesn’t Understand Difference Between Biden’s Weaponized DOJ And Trump’s Pursuit Of Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tried to compare the Biden administration\u2019s weaponization of the Justice Department to the Trump administration\u2019s effort to clean up that abuse during Wednesday\u2019s confirmation hearing for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.<\/p>\n

Read more \u2018It\u2019s Not An Oops\u2019: Critics Call For Firing Of Incompetent Wisconsin Election Official<\/a><\/p>\n

Tillis opened his commentary by stating he was \u201cgoing to ascent to the rarified air of the moral high ground for a minute.\u201d Tillis first acknowledged that Democrats refused to speak out against the weaponization of the DOJ under the Biden administration. But he then suggested the Trump administration is now doing the same thing the Biden administration did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was against that and I\u2019m also against some of the decisions of the president,\u201d Tillis said, referring to Democrats\u2019 weaponization and the alleged weaponization by Republicans. \u201cNow, my criticism of the administration with the red jersey (Republicans): January 6. I have searched Heaven and Earth and I haven\u2019t found anything except a passing comment at a C-Span conference, so can you tell me definitively that you think that any Capitol police officer who was harmed on January 6 was a victim of a heinous crime at the hands of the person who did it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanche affirmed as much and noted individuals involved with violence were prosecuted. Tillis then resumed criticizing the current administration. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want leadership that says \u2018we\u2019re gonna ratchet things down and not<\/em> make the heinous mistakes that the Biden administration did\u2019. Let\u2019s be better than them, not better at prosecuting people that maybe we shouldn\u2019t \u2014 or take a little bit more time before we indict them \u2014 but let\u2019s just be better than them. Let\u2019s set an example and stop this spiraling,\u201d Tillis said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration has done the same thing to justify some of their behavior \u2026 we are at this place today in part because of the actions of the Biden administration and the weaponization that I even saw under Garland who I generally supported. Let\u2019s just be real here people,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

Tillis then shifted his attention to the $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund \u2014 which was designed to redress claims of those who believe they were the victim of Biden\u2019s weaponization of justice \u2014 and said it should never be paid out.<\/p>\n

But Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., explained during that same hearing the distinction that Tillis apparently doesn\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you go after your political opponents, that is weaponization,\u201d Schmitt said. \u201cWhen you hold people accountable who weaponize the justice system, that\u2019s not the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right. Holding those who weaponized the system of justice accountable is not the same as weaponizing it. In fact, as The Federalist Managing Editor Elle Purnell wrote in these pages, \u201cthe best way to end the political weaponization of the bureaucracy is to punish the weaponizers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Democrat Senator Wants ICE Agents To Choose Between Getting Run Over And Going To Jail<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet critics of Trump (like Tillis) purposely ignore that important distinction, which only downplays the severity of the weaponization seen in Biden\u2019s DOJ.<\/p>\n

The Biden DOJ appointed Jack Smith as special counsel, and he indicted Trump in June of 2023 on 40 felony counts for allegedly mishandling classified documents. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the case one year later, ruling Smith\u2019s appointment was unconstitutional. Smith also secured an indictment against Trump for his speech questioning the outcome of the 2020 election. The Supreme Court narrowed the scope of the case vis-a-vis their immunity ruling, and Smith later moved to dismiss the charges after Trump won the election.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Douglass Mackey was prosecuted and sentenced to seven months in jail on charges of \u201cconspiracy to interfere\u00a0with voters\u2019 potential right to vote\u201d for having posted a meme during the 2016 election encouraging people to vote for Hillary Clinton via text. His conviction was later unanimously tossed.<\/p>\n

In 2022, more than two dozen\u00a0Christian pro-lifers\u00a0were persecuted by the Biden DOJ under the FACE Act for peacefully protesting against abortion. Some of those arrested included people who simply prayed and sang hymns outside abortion facilities, as The Federalist\u2019s Jordan Boyd reported. The most notable victim was Mark Houck, who protected his son from abortion activists at a demonstration across from Planned Parenthood in 2021. The administration used FBI agents armed with battering rams and ballistic shields to arrest Houck at his home in front of his family. His family recounted that agents \u201chad big, huge rifles pointed at Mark and pointed at me and kind of pointed throughout the house.\u201d Houck was later cleared by a federal grand jury.<\/p>\n

Nor was the Biden DOJ\u2019s targeting focused on high-profile cases.<\/p>\n

A 2024 Inspector General report, along with transcripts of one FBI official\u2019s 2023 interview with the House Judiciary Committee, \u201cshows that the FBI\u2019s strategy for retaliating against whistleblowers involved suspending their security clearances without explanation or warning,\u201d Boyd wrote in these pages. That same inspector general report also found that \u201cthe FBI\u2019s partisan leadership is currently engaging in a \u2018purge\u2019 of agents who hold conservative political beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Boyd also reported in 2024, the DOJ pursued a four-count indictment against a Texas doctor who blew the whistle on Texas Children\u2019s Hospital in Houston for performing gender mutilation surgeries. Meanwhile concerned parents who showed up at school board meetings were labeled possible \u201cdomestic terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Biden administration also spied on Republican members of Congress by targeting lawmakers\u2019 personal cell phones for \u201ctolling data\u201d as part of the FBI\u2019s Arctic Frost investigation, which was used to justify the lawfare against Trump\u2019s challenges to the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Holding those engaged in that conduct accountable is not<\/em> the same as weaponizing the Department of Justice, and the sooner \u201cRepublicans\u201d like Tillis understand that, the sooner trust can be restored in these systems. <\/p>\n

Read more Durbin Says Left-Wing Assassination Attempts Against SCOTUS Are Actually Todd Blanche\u2019s Fault<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. 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