WATCH: Soviet-born congresswoman compares Merrick Garland’s DOJ to the KGB

The Daily Knight
Sep 24, 2023
2 min read

The Daily Knight

Congresswoman Victoria Spartz, who grew up in what is now Ukraine, told Attorney General Merrick Garland that Americans 'are afraid of their own government' during a U.S. House committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — An Indiana congresswoman born in the former Soviet Union slammed Attorney General Merrick Garland for overseeing a politicized Department of Justice (DOJ).

Republican Congresswoman Victoria Spartz criticized AG Garland and said people are “afraid of their own government,” citing FBI outreach into towns over unruly citizens who committed disorderly conduct on January 6, 2021.

Her comments came on Wednesday during a U.S. House committee hearing on oversight of the DOJ.

She said the DOJ is like the “KGB” and criticized the abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. She criticized how investigations are “slow walked” when it comes to liberals, including Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden.

“We were very quick on Donald Trump,” though, she noted.

Spartz, who grew up in what is now Ukraine, also brought up Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the country, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting fees for natural gas company Burisma, while his father oversaw Ukrainian policy under President Barack Obama.

She said that the ineptness of the DOJ is empowering Russia and China as well. Spartz also raised concerns about foreigners voting in American elections.

Garland and his department have come under scrutiny for targeting conservatives, pro-lifers, and Catholics.

In October 2021, Garland ordered federal authorities to be ready to prosecute parents and other citizens who spoke out against COVID regulations and the framing of sex and race discussion in classrooms.

The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government also concluded there was “no legitimate basis” for this targeting.

The FBI and the national security apparatus keep getting caught targeting parents and pro-life activists.

For example, the Richmond, Virginia, field office of the FBI put out an intelligence bulletin, later found out to include the work of several other offices, that labeled Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass as potential threats, relying on information from the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center. The memo was signed off on by a top FBI attorney in Richmond.

Garland appeared offended at Wednesday’s hearing at the suggestion his DOJ held animosity against Catholics, citing his family background, which included relatives killed during the Holocaust.

“Mr. Attorney General, it was your FBI that did this!” Congressman Jeff Van Drew noted. “It was your FBI that was sending – and we have the memos, we have the emails – were sending undercover agents into Catholic churches.”