Vivek Ramaswamy demands all communications between White House and Justice Department before Trump indictment: 2024 hopeful files legal request after vowing to pardon ex-president
- 37-year-old Republican presidential candidate files lawsuit for access to all documents related to Trump’s indictment
- He submitted what’s called a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to get more details about how the former president’s cases are being handled.
- Ramaswamy says he will forgive the property mogul if his long campaign for the White House is successful
Republican presidential longshot Vivek Ramaswamy wants the US government to release all communication between the White House and the DOJ over its classified documents case against Donald Trump.
Ramaswamy filed what is known as a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request on Monday, June 12, demanding that officials hand over those files.
The 37-year-old entrepreneur said, through a lawyer, that the indictment of the former commander in chief “raises serious concerns that the DOJ is politicized and armed against opponents policies to the incumbent President of the United States”.
Ramaswamy, seen here at the Iowa Roast and Ride event on June 3, filed a FOIA request demanding that the US government release all files related to Trump’s indictment.
Trump has repeatedly called the slew of lawsuits he faces a ‘witch hunt’
His legal team said they want to know all the details of what the White House said to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith regarding the indictment which has up to 37 counts against the former president.
Trump will appear in court in Miami on Tuesday June 13 in the first-ever federal criminal prosecution against a former US president.
“Every American deserves to know,” Ramaswamy said. “If the captured media is not doing their job, the real leaders of this country must step in and do it instead.”
The self-proclaimed “anti-reawakening” activist told CNN on Sunday that he was “even more convinced” that he would have to forgive the real estate mogul if he won the 2024 presidential election.
In a testy exchange with the Left Network’s Dana Bash, Ramaswamy accused the host of failing to ask the Biden administration about whether they had asked the DOJ to go after Trump.
“The main question, really, that we should be asking is, what did Biden say to Merrick Garland? What did Merrick Garland tell Jack Smith? Ramaswamy said, calling the indictment “deeply politicized”.
“This is selective prosecution. I think it’s irresponsible not to have included any treatment of these facts or this right in this indictment. It stinks of politicization, which is why I want to come back to the main question the media really should be asking,’ he told the stunned CNN host.
Trump is facing a rap sheet of 37 counts related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents that were found at his Florida Mar-a-Lago residence.
They include counts of withholding classified information, obstructing justice and making false statements, among other alleged crimes.
Bill Barr, who served as attorney general under the Trump presidency, believes the real estate mogul could raise a toast if the charges go to court
Bill Barr, Trump’s attorney general from February 2019 to December 2020, warned that his former boss would be “fried” if the indictment made it to court.
“I was shocked at the sensitivity of these documents and their number … and I believe that the Espionage Act charges that he deliberately withheld these documents are solid accounts,” a- he said in an interview with Fox News.
“If even half of this is true, then he’s screwed. It’s a very detailed and very damning indictment,” the former Trump administration official added.
Joe Biden said on Friday he has not spoken to Attorney General Merrick Garland about Trump’s latest legal woes and has no intention of doing so.
“I haven’t spoken to him at all and I’m not going to speak to him,” Biden said, when asked by a reporter if he would speak to the attorney general.
The Code of Federal Regulations states that any special advocate must have “a reputation for integrity and impartiality in decision-making”,
The rules also call for “an informed understanding of criminal law and Department of Justice policies.”
