Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and other Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats for a spotlight hearing to recount the effects of January 6 and expose President Donald Trump’s reckless decision to pardon January 6 insurrectionists.
The hearing featured federal prosecutors who handled January 6 cases and law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol on January 6 including Sara Levine, former prosecutor, Capitol Siege Section, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office; former United States Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn; Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges; and Mike Romano, former Deputy Chief, Capitol Siege Section, D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Watch Schiff’s full opening remarks HERE. Download remarks HERE.
Key Excerpts:
On the abuse of power following January 6:
I also remember what happened the moment that Donald Trump was sworn into office again, the man who incited that attack. Because the moment he was sworn in, we saw the next chapter of January 6. We saw the big lie turn into big vengeance. We saw the president pardon hundreds of violent attackers on police, a total of 1,600 people overnight. We saw the firing of prosecutors who had brought many of those cases. We saw the effort to purge the FBI of agents who were assigned to those cases. We saw the punishing of law firms who represented the Special Counsel or played other roles in the investigation or prosecution of January 6. We saw the appointment of the president’s criminal defense lawyers to the highest ranks of the Justice Department, and we saw an acting U.S. Attorney appointed in the District of Columbia to one of the most important U.S. Attorney’s offices in the country with no experience except for being a stop the steal lawyer, except for somebody who said there ought to be “less judgment for somebody who hits a cop.” How is it even possible we are considering someone for U.S. Attorney, someone who said there should be less judgment for someone who hits a cop? I guess what he is really saying is someone who hits a cop who is acting in the service of the president.
On Trump weaponizing the Justice Department to serve his interests:
Schiff: Mr. Romano, I know you have been in the U.S. Attorney’s office and the Justice Department for 15 years. We are grateful for your service. I don’t even know where to begin to ask you about the nightmare we are in except, what do you make of a Justice Department now that intervenes in a criminal case in New York involving allegations of serious corruption by a mayor to make that case go away because the mayor is useful to the president on an unrelated policy matter? What do you make of the Justice Department firing a prosecutor who will not falsely assert there is a criminal basis for investigation of an environmental fund because it is unethical to do? What do you make of that Justice Department? Do you even recognize it?
Romano: It is hard to know what to say about that, Senator. Those choices were terrible. I fear they are a signal of more to come. There never should have been that effort to dismiss the case in New York. That was, in an effort to have the mayor of New York help the president with enforcement of immigration, that has nothing to do with if there was a case that was appropriately investigated and prosecuted. The prosecution of public corruption offenses is tremendously important. People who are in positions of power and abuse that power should be held accountable. I worked in the public integrity section. I was there at the time that my deputy chiefs refused to sign off on that. I was proud of them for doing so. They conveyed to us that they had let Justice Department management know that they were not going to sign that motion to dismiss the case against Mayor Adams. It was awful to see them fired, but we were proud of the action that they took. That is what attorneys in the Justice Department should be doing. I am deeply afraid that the Justice Department will be used against the president’s enemies and that these are sons of things to come.
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