Jamie Raskin urges 'sweeping detrumpification' of DOJ after James Comey indictment

Rep. Jamie Raskin called for the "detrumpification" of the government and its agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), on Sunday. Speaking in an interview on MS Now, the Maryland Democrat claimed that it would be a huge task to ensure that the government acted in the interests of the American people and the Constitution rather than that of one person and his family.

"We need a sweeping detrumpification of the Department of Justice," he said. "There are huge parts of the DOJ that have just been dismantled. For example, when they started off, they said they're no longer going to enforce the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. They stopped monitoring foreign subversion of American elections. In other words, they wanted to facilitate all of that."

Raskin also accused the Trump administration of doing away with the pardon office, which made the Justice Department a "totally political organization running out of the White House." The 63-year-old said that the corruption in the DOJ and the rest of the government would have to be targeted, but he called it the "work of a generation," implying that the upcoming midterm elections would not be enough to achieve that goal.

"We need to detrumpify this government and restore it as an instrument of the common good and for American constitutional democracy rather than the private self-enrichment of one guy and his family," he said. Raskin's comments come days after the DOJ indicted former FBI Director James Comey over an earlier Instagram post, in which he had depicted "86 47" with seashells on a beach. President Trump claimed that '86' was a mob term for assassination.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has, however, said that the Instagram post is not the sole basis for Comet's indictment, The Guardian reported. "Rest assured that it's not just the Instagram post that leads somebody to get indicted," he said. "You prove intent with witnesses, you prove intent with documents, with materials…At the trial, a public trial that will be open to the public, everybody in this country will know exactly what evidence the government has against Mr. Comey."

Since Comey's indictment, the DOJ has come under intense criticism from Democrats; the most recent one coming from Rep. Daniel Goldman. Taking to X, the New York lawmaker questioned whether the DOJ was charging Comey based on evidence from a different individual. Republicans, on the other hand, are standing firm in suppoet of the Justice Department.

In a Newsmax interview, Rep. John Rose termed Comey's actions "indefensible," and accused him of "fanning the flames of violence," which he believed came from the left. "The Democrats talk about how there's over-the-top rhetoric from both sides, but all of the bullets are going from the left to the right, and I think James Comey bears some responsibility for that," he said.