(Daily Signal)—Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to answer questions on a wide range of matters Wednesday in sworn testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.
Garland testified that he couldn’t remember whether he talked to FBI personnel about the investigation of first son Hunter Biden and didn’t know how many confidential informants entered the Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
The attorney general, appointed by President Joe Biden, also hesitated to answer whether Catholics are “violent extremists,” as an infamous FBI memo said.
Here are seven takeaways from the House committee’s hearing at which Garland, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, testified.
1. ‘Traditional Catholics Are Violent Extremists? Yes or No?’
Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., brought up the January memo out of the FBI field office in Richmond, Virginia, detailing plans to spy on American Catholics. The leaked memo said “radical traditionalist Catholics” had the potential to become “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”
Van Drew asked Garland, who as head of the Justice Department oversees the FBI: “Do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists? Yes or no?”
Garland said: “I have no idea what traditional means here.”
Van Drew then defined the term as “Catholics that go to church.”
Garland, who is Jewish, seemed to become indignant over the question. But he didn’t directly answer.
“The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous, so absurd,” Garland said forcefully.
Van Drew replied: “Mr. Attorney General, it was your FBI that did this.”
“It was your FBI that was sending—and we have the memo, we have the emails—that were sending undercover agents into Catholic churches,” the New Jersey Republican continued.
Garland replied that he and FBI Director Christopher Wray already had denounced the memo from the FBI’s Richmond field office.
“I and the director of the FBI have said that we were appalled by that memo,” Garland said.
Van Drew again asked: “Are they extremists or not, Attorney General?”
Garland responded: “Everything in that memo is appalling.”
2. ‘Don’t Recollect’ Personal Contact
Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., asked about who the attorney general has talked to regarding his department’s investigation of Hunter Biden for failing to file income tax returns reflecting all his overseas business dealings, including in China and Ukraine, and for drug-related gun offenses. That probe began in 2018, during the Trump administration.
“Has anyone from the White House provided direction at any time to you personally or to senior officials at the DOJ regarding how the Hunter Biden investigation was to be carried out?” Johnson asked.
Garland answered, “No.”
From there, the attorney general’s answer became sketchier.
“Have you had personal contact with anyone at FBI HQ about the Hunter Biden investigation?” Johnson asked.
“Uh, I don’t recollect the answer to that question,” Garland testified. “But the FBI works for the Justice Department.”
This answer seemed to surprise Johnson.
“You don’t recollect whether you talked to anybody at FBI headquarters about an investigation into the president’s son?” he asked.
Garland clarified: “I don’t believe that I did.”
Johnson noted that on July 10, 2023, U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss wrote a letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in which the prosecutor said he “had discussions with departmental officials” regarding prosecuting cases in other jurisdictions under federal law (U.S. 28C Section 515).
Johnson asked: “With whom did Mr. Weiss have discussions?”
Garland replied: “I’m not going to get into internal deliberations of the department.”
Johnson: “But you must, sir. This is important for us. We have oversight responsibility over your department and we need these answers.”
Garland declined to give a clear answer.
“I made clear that if he wanted to bring a case in any jurisdiction, he would be able to do that,” Garland said, referring to Weiss. “The way you do that is to get an order signed by the attorney general, called a 515 order.”
Biden-appointed U.S. attorneys in California and Washington, D.C., declined to allow Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration, to file charges against the younger Biden in their jurisdictions.
Last month, Garland named Weiss as special counsel, giving him more authority to investigate and bring charges under the law in the jurisdictions of his choice.
3. ‘Defunding the FBI’ Would Be ‘Catastrophic’
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, brought up the fact that some Republican lawmakers had called for shutting down the FBI. They did so in protest of what they saw as unequal treatment of Americans under the law, including the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home in August 2022.
“What would be the impact on America of defunding the FBI?” Nadler asked Garland.
The attorney general sounded alarms about such a move.
“Defunding the FBI would leave the United States naked to the maligned influence of the Chinese Communist Party, the attacks by Iranians on American citizens, attempts to assassinate former officials, up to Russian aggression, to North Korea cyberattacks, to violent crime in the United States, which the FBI helps to fight against,” Garland said.
He also said the FBI stops “all kinds of espionage” and pursues “domestic violent extremists who have attacked our churches, our synagogues, our mosques, and who have killed individuals out of racial hatred.”
“I cannot imagine the consequences of defunding the FBI, but they would be catastrophic,” Garland said.
4. About Weiss: ‘What Changed?’
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, noted that Weiss at one point wanted to bring charges against Hunter Biden in the District of Columbia, but U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew Graves declined to cooperate.
“You said he had complete authority, but he had already been turned down,” Jordan said, referring to Weiss. “He wanted to bring an action in the District of Columbia and the U.S. attorney there said, ‘No, you can’t.’ Then you go tell the United States Senate under oath that he has complete authority.”
Garland replied: “I’m going to say again that no one had the authority to turn him down. They could refuse to partner with him.”
Appearing to be taken aback, Jordan responded: “‘Refuse to partner’ is turning down.”
Garland replied: “It’s not the same, under a well-known Justice Department practice.”
Jordan also asked “What changed?” in the time between the July 10 letter to Graham in which Weiss said he didn’t ask to be named a special counsel and Garland’s Aug. 11 announcement appointing Weiss as special counsel.
“Several days before my announcement, Mr. Weiss had asked to become special counsel,” Garland testified. “He explained that he had reached the stage in his investigation where he thought that appropriate.”
Jordan sarcastically referenced the launch of the Hunter Biden investigation in 2018.
“After five years, what stage are we in?” the Ohio Republican asked. “Are we in the beginning stage, the middle stage, the end stage, the keep-hiding-the-ball stage?”
Garland responded: “This one I would go back to the videotape, where I said I’m not permitted to discuss ongoing investigations.”
Jordan retorted: “Isn’t that convenient.”
“Something changed in 31 to 32 days from July 10 to Aug. 11,” Jordan added. “I think it’s two brave whistleblowers came forward and a judge called BS on the plea deal.”
Jordan was referring to the testimony of two IRS whistleblowers and the collapse of the Justice Department’s plea agreement with Hunter Biden, in which the president’s son would have faced no prison time.
5. ‘People Don’t Pay Bribes to Not Get Something’
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., suggested that the Biden Justice Department’s decision to close the Trump administration’s China Initiative, which since 2018 had investigated Chinese espionage in the U.S., correlated with millions of dollars from Chinese sources going to the Biden family.
Gaetz asked the attorney general: “Why was the China Initiative dissolved?”
Garland replied that China isn’t the only source of espionage and other attacks.
“We face attacks from four nation-states: North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran, and we need to focus our attention on the broad range of these attacks,” Garland said.
Gaetz seemed to scoff.
“Are you saying that North Korea has the same malign influence risk to the United States as the Chinese Communist Party?” Gaetz asked the attorney general. “Because here’s what it looks like. It looks like the Chinese gave all this money to the Bidens and then you guys came in and got rid of the China Initiative.”
Garland responded: “North Korea is a dangerous actor.”
Gaetz later followed up by asking: “Do you know about the money that moved through Rob Walker’s shell company? Yes or no?”
Garland didn’t give a direct answer.
“As I have said repeatedly, I have left these matters to Mr. Weiss,” he said. “I have not intruded. I have not interfered.”
Financial records show that from 2015 to 2017, Biden family members and their companies received $1.3 million in payments from accounts related to Walker, a Biden family associate, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
In March 2017, about two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency, State Energy HK Limited, a Chinese company, wired $3 million to Walker’s company. The next day, Walker’s company wired $1.06 million to a company associated with James Gilliar, another Biden family associate.
Afterward, the Biden family members received approximately $1.06 million in payments to different bank accounts over a three-month period.
“It’s like you’re looking the other way on purpose, because everybody knows this stuff is happening. But people don’t pay bribes to not get something in return,” Gaetz told Garland.
“The China Initiative resulted in the convictions of a Harvard professor, of someone at Monsanto,” the Florida Republican said. “So we were working against the Chinese. They paid the Bidens. Now you are sitting here telling me that North Korea is the big threat?”
6. ‘Agents and Assets’ at Capitol Riot? ‘Don’t Know’
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., asked Garland whether any confidential informants were involved in the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
“How many agents or assets of the government were present on Jan. 5 and Jan. 6 and agitating in the crowd to go into the Capitol, and how many went into the Capitol?” Massie asked. “Can you answer that now?”
Garland replied: “I don’t know the answer to that question.”
Massie then asked: “You don’t know how many there were, or there were none?”
Garland affirmed his lack of knowledge.
“I don’t know the answer to either of those questions. If there were any, I don’t know how many. I don’t know if there are any,” Garland said.
Massie said he didn’t believe the attorney general.
“I think you may have just perjured yourself [by saying] that you don’t know that there were any,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Do you want to say that again, that you don’t know there were any?
The attorney general again said: “I have no personal knowledge of this matter.”
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted Ray Epps, a man seen on video telling protesters to enter the Capitol before the riot, on charges of disorderly or disruptive conduct on restricted grounds.
Some politicians and pundits have questioned why Epps had not been charged earlier, and whether he was a confidential informant.
“By the way, that was in reference to Ray Epps and yesterday, you indicted him. Isn’t that a wonderful coincidence?” Massie asked. “On a misdemeanor. Meanwhile, you’re sending grandmas to prison.”
Massie continued:
You are putting people away for 20 years for merely filming [during the Capitol riot]. Some people weren’t even there yet. You’ve got the guy on video who is saying, ‘Go into the Capitol.’ He’s directing people to the Capitol before [Trump’s] speech ends. He’s at the site of the first breach. You’ve got all the goods on him. And it’s an indictment for a misdemeanor? The American public isn’t buying it.
7. ‘That Goes Right to the White House’
Jordan pressed Garland on why Justice Department prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden allowed the statute of limitations to expire for tax charges.
Such charges would have stretched back to the younger Biden’s time on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that paid him $50,000 a month while his father was vice president.
Coffee the Christian way: Promised Grounds
As vice president, Biden oversaw the Obama administration’s policy on Ukraine.
“They made an intentional decision to say we’re going to let the statute of limitations lapse,” Jordan told Garland. “I want to know who decided that and why they did it.”
Garland punted the answer to Weiss.
“Mr. Weiss was the supervisor of the investigation at that time and at all times,” Garland said. “He made the appropriate decisions. You’ll be able to ask him that question.”
Jordan responded that everyone knows the answer.
“Those tax years involved the president. It’s one thing to have a gun charge in Delaware. That doesn’t involve the president of the United States,” Jordan said. “But Burisma, oh my, that goes right to the White House. We can’t have that.”
Ken McIntyre contributed to this report.
Five Things New “Preppers” Forget When Getting Ready for Bad Times Ahead
The preparedness community is growing faster than it has in decades. Even during peak times such as Y2K, the economic downturn of 2008, and Covid, the vast majority of Americans made sure they had plenty of toilet paper but didn’t really stockpile anything else.
Things have changed. There’s a growing anxiety in this presidential election year that has prompted more Americans to get prepared for crazy events in the future. Some of it is being driven by fearmongers, but there are valid concerns with the economy, food supply, pharmaceuticals, the energy grid, and mass rioting that have pushed average Americans into “prepper” mode.
There are degrees of preparedness. One does not have to be a full-blown “doomsday prepper” living off-grid in a secure Montana bunker in order to be ahead of the curve. In many ways, preparedness isn’t about being able to perfectly handle every conceivable situation. It’s about being less dependent on government for as long as possible. Those who have proper “preps” will not be waiting for FEMA to distribute emergency supplies to the desperate masses.
Below are five things people new to preparedness (and sometimes even those with experience) often forget as they get ready. All five are common sense notions that do not rely on doomsday in order to be useful. It may be nice to own a tank during the apocalypse but there’s not much you can do with it until things get really crazy. The recommendations below can have places in the lives of average Americans whether doomsday comes or not.
Note: The information provided by this publication or any related communications is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. We do not provide personalized investment, financial, or legal advice.
Secured Wealth
Whether in the bank or held in a retirement account, most Americans feel that their life’s savings is relatively secure. At least they did until the last couple of years when de-banking, geopolitical turmoil, and the threat of Central Bank Digital Currencies reared their ugly heads.
It behooves Americans to diversify their holdings. If there’s a triggering event or series of events that cripple the financial systems or devalue the U.S. Dollar, wealth can evaporate quickly. To hedge against potential turmoil, many Americans are looking in two directions: Crypto and physical precious metals.
There are huge advantages to cryptocurrencies, but there are also inherent risks because “virtual” money can become challenging to spend. Add in the push by central banks and governments to regulate or even replace cryptocurrencies with their own versions they control and the risks amplify. There’s nothing wrong with cryptocurrencies today but things can change rapidly.
As for physical precious metals, many Americans pay cash to keep plenty on hand in their safe. Rolling over or transferring retirement accounts into self-directed IRAs is also a popular option, but there are caveats. It can often take weeks or even months to get the gold and silver shipped if the owner chooses to close their account. This is why Genesis Gold Group stands out. Their relationship with the depositories allows for rapid closure and shipping, often in less than 10 days from the time the account holder makes their move. This can come in handy if things appear to be heading south.
Lots of Potable Water
One of the biggest shocks that hit new preppers is understanding how much potable water they need in order to survive. Experts claim one gallon of water per person per day is necessary. Even the most conservative estimates put it at over half-a-gallon. That means that for a family of four, they’ll need around 120 gallons of water to survive for a month if the taps turn off and the stores empty out.
Being near a fresh water source, whether it’s a river, lake, or well, is a best practice among experienced preppers. It’s necessary to have a water filter as well, even if the taps are still working. Many refuse to drink tap water even when there is no emergency. Berkey was our previous favorite but they’re under attack from regulators so the Alexapure systems are solid replacements.
For those in the city or away from fresh water sources, storage is the best option. This can be challenging because proper water storage containers take up a lot of room and are difficult to move if the need arises. For “bug in” situations, having a larger container that stores hundreds or even thousands of gallons is better than stacking 1-5 gallon containers. Unfortunately, they won’t be easily transportable and they can cost a lot to install.
Water is critical. If chaos erupts and water infrastructure is compromised, having a large backup supply can be lifesaving.
Pharmaceuticals and Medical Supplies
There are multiple threats specific to the medical supply chain. With Chinese and Indian imports accounting for over 90% of pharmaceutical ingredients in the United States, deteriorating relations could make it impossible to get the medicines and antibiotics many of us need.
Stocking up many prescription medications can be hard. Doctors generally do not like to prescribe large batches of drugs even if they are shelf-stable for extended periods of time. It is a best practice to ask your doctor if they can prescribe a larger amount. Today, some are sympathetic to concerns about pharmacies running out or becoming inaccessible. Tell them your concerns. It’s worth a shot. The worst they can do is say no.
If your doctor is unwilling to help you stock up on medicines, then Jase Medical is a good alternative. Through telehealth, they can prescribe daily meds or antibiotics that are shipped to your door. As proponents of medical freedom, they empathize with those who want to have enough medical supplies on hand in case things go wrong.
Energy Sources
The vast majority of Americans are locked into the grid. This has proven to be a massive liability when the grid goes down. Unfortunately, there are no inexpensive remedies.
Those living off-grid had to either spend a lot of money or effort (or both) to get their alternative energy sources like solar set up. For those who do not want to go so far, it’s still a best practice to have backup power sources. Diesel generators and portable solar panels are the two most popular, and while they’re not inexpensive they are not out of reach of most Americans who are concerned about being without power for extended periods of time.
Natural gas is another necessity for many, but that’s far more challenging to replace. Having alternatives for heating and cooking that can be powered if gas and electric grids go down is important. Have a backup for items that require power such as manual can openers. If you’re stuck eating canned foods for a while and all you have is an electric opener, you’ll have problems.
Don’t Forget the Protein
When most think about “prepping,” they think about their food supply. More Americans are turning to gardening and homesteading as ways to produce their own food. Others are working with local farmers and ranchers to purchase directly from the sources. This is a good idea whether doomsday comes or not, but it’s particularly important if the food supply chain is broken.
Most grocery stores have about one to two weeks worth of food, as do most American households. Grocers rely heavily on truckers to receive their ongoing shipments. In a crisis, the current process can fail. It behooves Americans for multiple reasons to localize their food purchases as much as possible.
Long-term storage is another popular option. Canned foods, MREs, and freeze dried meals are selling out quickly even as prices rise. But one component that is conspicuously absent in shelf-stable food is high-quality protein. Most survival food companies offer low quality “protein buckets” or cans of meat, but they are often barely edible.
Prepper All-Naturals offers premium cuts of steak that have been cooked sous vide and freeze dried to give them a 25-year shelf life. They offer Ribeye, NY Strip, and Tenderloin among others.
Having buckets of beans and rice is a good start, but keeping a solid supply of high-quality protein isn’t just healthier. It can help a family maintain normalcy through crises.
Prepare Without Fear
With all the challenges we face as Americans today, it can be emotionally draining. Citizens are scared and there’s nothing irrational about their concerns. Being prepared and making lifestyle changes to secure necessities can go a long way toward overcoming the fears that plague us. We should hope and pray for the best but prepare for the worst. And if the worst does come, then knowing we did what we could to be ready for it will help us face those challenges with confidence.
