Sen. Hawley Warns DOJ and FBI Not to Destroy Documents

We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

The Missouri Republican said the Senate plans to investigate the two agencies thoroughly.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a warning on Dec. 4 to the heads of the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ), telling them not to dispose of records or documents that could indicate mismanagement or wrongdoing.

“I’m putting DOJ & FBI on notice,“ Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) wrote on X. ”Don’t shred a single document. Don’t delete a single file. Accountability is coming,” Hawley wrote on X.

Hawley’s post was accompanied by a more formal open letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, stating that he had received reports that records were already being destroyed.

“With sunlight now on the horizon, I’m not surprised by last-ditch efforts to stonewall the incoming administration. But those efforts will fail,” Hawley wrote.

He urged Garland and Wray to fire anyone responsible for destroying documents and “preserve all Department and Bureau documents in anticipation of congressional investigations to come.”

Hawley also said in the letter that he intended to use his position on the Senate Judiciary Committee to ensure the two agencies are thoroughly investigated over what he called “sordid” actions during the Biden administration.

The senator’s letter referenced “bad-faith prosecutions of pro-life” protesters and allegations that the FBI planned to send undercover agents to traditional Latin Mass Catholic church services to monitor them for extremist tendencies ahead of the 2024 election.

Wray addressed the planned surveillance of Catholics during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee in July 2023.

He said the memo referring to Catholic extremists, which leaked in February 2023, stemmed from a single field office in Richmond, Virginia, but went no further.

“As soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems,” he told Congress.

On Nov. 5, Hawley won his reelection bid against Democrat Lucas Kunce by 56 percent to 42 percent and will begin his second term on Jan. 3, 2025.

In addition to his work as a ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Hawley was a member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations during the 2024 session of Congress.

Hawley ended the letter by warning Wray and Garland to “prepare for the real justice to come.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ and FBI for comment but received no response by publication time.