Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz: AG Garland 'Should Be Impeached' for Bannon Sentence (Newsmax/"Rob Schmitt Tonight")
By Charles Kim | Tuesday, 25 October 2022 02:56 PM EDT
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is "furious" over the four-month jail sentence for former President Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon on a contempt of Congress conviction.
Attorney General Merrick Garland should be impeached for weaponizing the Department of Justice to go after President Joe Biden and Democrats' political rivals, Cruz said on a podcast Monday.
"I am furious because Merrick Garland has presided over a Department of Justice that now consists of simply being a partisan weapon to attack the political opponents of Joe Biden and the Democrats," Cruz told "Verdict with Ted Cruz." "Merrick Garland should be ashamed, he should resign in disgrace, and if he doesn't, he should be impeached and removed from office."
Cruz said Bannon was sentenced for defying a Congressional subpoena from the House Select Committee on Jan. 6, something Democrats, including former President Barack Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder, have done in the past, but were never given any jail time for the same offense.
Cruz said the committee is nothing more than a "partisan" body created by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., without allowing Republicans to choose their own members, but only allowed two GOP members on that were critical of Trump.
"She didn't want Republicans that would actually oppose the Democrats' partisan agenda," Cruz said. "She vetoed the Republican [choices]. That was unprecedented. She doesn't get to do that."
He said Bannon refused to testify and Garland's Justice Department "stepped forward to prosecute him," highlighting the "double standard" of Holder not being prosecuted while Bannon was.
This is not the first time Cruz has called for Garland to be impeached.
In August, Cruz said the case to impeach Garland "is growing by leaps and bounds every day."
"The more lawless, the more politicized DOJ gets, the more compelling it becomes to impeach Garland," Cruz told his podcast in August.
Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., introduced a bill in the House a year ago to impeach the attorney general, setting out the "high crimes and misdemeanors" he committed at the time.
The resolution accuses Garland of politicizing the DOJ to go after parents at school board meetings that speak out against the schools for what is being taught in their childrens' classrooms.
The resolution also accused Garland and the DOJ of going after political opponents to "punish" them.
After being introduced in the House on Oct. 22, 2021, the legislation was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary, according to Congress' official website.