“The answer to this climate of fear – there really is only one answer and you’re seeing it today and that is courage. We must demonstrate courage in the face of this fear.”
Watch the full hearing HERE
Washington, D.C. — Yesterday, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.-8), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, led Senate and House Democrats in a spotlight hearing examining President Donald Trump’s attack on the rule of law, weaponization of the Department of Justice, and intimidation of federal employees and corporations.
“All the rest of us have to ask ourselves, looking back at the McCarthy era, what would we have done? What would we have done? If we were faced with the loss of our jobs, if we were faced with the loss of our livelihood, if we were faced with the loss of our position, what would we have done? Well, you don’t have to ask that question. Your being here is all the answer anyone could demand, and we are deeply, deeply grateful to you,” said Senator Schiff during the hearing.
At the hearing, Schiff, Raskin, and members of the Senate and House heard testimony from former Department of Justice employees Liz Oyer, Ryan Crosswell, and Stacey Young, who refused to conform to the Trump administration’s efforts to intimidate career attorneys and tear apart the rule of law. Members also heard testimony from Rachel Cohen, a former Senior Associate at law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Joining Schiff and Raskin at the bicameral spotlight hearing were Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawai’i), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Representatives Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.-12), Henry Johnson (D-Ga.-04), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.-05), Becca Balint (D-Vt.-AL), and Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.-04).
Key Excerpts from Witness Statements:
Liz Oyer, former DOJ pardon attorney, on being fired for not complying with Trump’s demands:
On Friday night, at about 9:15 p.m., I learned that the Deputy Attorney General’s Office had directed the Department’s Security and Emergency Planning Staff to have two armed Special Deputy U.S. Marshals personally serve me with a letter at my home that night. The Deputy Marshals were directed to serve the letter between 9:00 and 10:00 p.m., when my teenage child was the only person at home. The letter was a warning to me about the risks of testifying here today.
[…] My experience is just one example of a much broader pattern of attacks on career experts across the Department of Justice. These pervasive assaults by the political leadership of the Department are terrorizing the career workforce. This is not by accident or oversight—it is by design. The very purpose of systematically forcing out career employees is to invoke fear, so that fear will give way to blind loyalty.”
Rachel Cohen, former Senior Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, shared her decision to come forward:
The administration cannot pick and choose who gets representation. It cannot use executive power to scare lawyers out of advocacy. If we allow any President to dictate who deserves a lawyer, our legal system fails.
Like firm leaders, I am afraid of where this intimidation campaign leads. But unlike most of them, I will not allow my fear to manifest as silence.
Ryan Crosswell, former DOJ trial attorney for public integrity, on his refusal to cave to the Trump administration’s threats:
The threats being made against members of the legal community, both in public service and private practice, are real and they are of consequence. To those attorneys facing such threats, I share with you a message that I received on the day that my colleagues and I were ordered to sign the motion dismiss, as the news slowly spread across the country. It came from a fellow Marine. It read “keep your head up”, and “keep your values and your oath at the forefront.”
Every attorney must have a line in the sand that cannot be crossed. Our oaths and our values require it. I love my country, and I loved being a federal prosecutor. It was a privilege to stand up at the start of every case and announce to the court, “Ryan Crosswell, on behalf of the United States.” And I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity to do it for ten years. My heart is with all those public servants who continue to serve and protect me, my family, and the American people.
Stacey Young, 18-year DOJ veteran and on the department’s mission-critical work:
The animus facing DOJ employees is unlike anything I saw in my nearly two decades of service, and I don’t believe there’s any precedent for it in the Department’s history. We can’t expect employees to counter these attacks alone. Protecting them and the DOJ’s mission-critical work must be a top priority of every member of your committees, and of all Americans who will suffer if the Department is destroyed.
Read Senator Schiff’s opening remarks HERE.
Read Ranking Member Raskin’s opening remarks HERE.
Read Ranking Member Durbin’s opening remarks HERE.
Read Liz Oyer’s opening statement HERE.
- Letter from DOJ Deputy Todd Blanche HERE.
- Letter response from Oyer to DOJ Deputy Todd Blanche HERE.
Read Rachel Cohen’s opening statement HERE.
Read Ryan Crosswell’s opening statement HERE.
Read Stacey Young’s opening statement HERE.
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