U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, condemning reports of agency personnel destroying documents and vowing to investigate their misconduct, including the targeting of President-elect Trump, pro-life Americans, and Catholics throughout the country.
“With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration. But those efforts will fail,” Senator Hawley wrote.
He committed to investigating these abuses in the years to come, noting, “As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who will hold the chairmanship of a Subcommittee in the forthcoming Congress, I intend to investigate your respective agencies’ illicit actions over the past several years.”
Read the full letter here or below.
December 3, 2024
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
United States Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530
The Honorable Christopher A. Wray
Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20535
Dear Attorney General Garland and Director Wray:
I have received reports that, under your leadership, DOJ and FBI employees are destroying records and other documents in an effort to conceal the widespread misconduct that took place under the Biden Administration. You must immediately stop this attempt to evade accountability, and should terminate any employees involved. Further, you must preserve all Department and Bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.
Under your leadership, the DOJ and FBI have engaged in unprecedented abuses of the justice system—ranging from the criminal prosecution of President-elect Trump to bad-faith prosecutions of pro-life Americans for peacefully protesting abortion, and attempts to recruit undercover informants in Catholic parishes. This is a sordid track record, and the American people deserve the truth about how it happened and who was involved.
With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration. But those efforts will fail. As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who will hold the chairmanship of a Subcommittee in the forthcoming Congress, I intend to investigate your respective agencies’ illicit actions over the past several years. If your staff are presently destroying relevant documents, then the American people will learn about that too, and will learn who gave the orders to do so.
The bottom line is this: you must immediately take all necessary steps to preserve all documents, records, and other materials generated by your agencies during your respective tenures in office. You must cease any bad-faith document destruction. And you should prepare for the real justice to come.
Sincerely,
Josh Hawley
United States Senator