A group of Republican senators is demanding that the Department of Justice take legal action against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, several congressmen asked the department to take legal action against the CCP for its alleged role in the Covid-19 pandemic. They did so, Fox News reported, after senior federal officials validated the theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.
Carta de varios senadores republicanos al fiscal general Merrick Garland by VozMedia on Scribd
In the letter, Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and five other GOP lawmakers asked what legal action the Department of Justice plans to take against China after the Department of Energy's "low confidence" claim that the virus which caused a global pandemic escaped from a Chinese laboratory:
More than 1.1 million Americans have died due to COVID-19 in the past three years, and untold millions more have suffered, and continue to suffer, physical and economic harms related to the pandemic. We write to ask what legal action you have pursued or plan to pursue as U.S. Attorney General against the Chinese Communist Party officials responsible for that lab leak and/or its cover-up to vindicate the interests of the millions of Americans who have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic?
Criticism of Garland
The letter also served as an opportunity for the Republican senators who signed it, including Ted Cruz (R-Tx.), Marcos Rubio (R-Fla.), Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), to accuse Garland of having an "apparent preference to wield the substantial resources of the federal law enforcement apparatus at your disposal for nakedly partisan endeavors rather than engaging in meaningful pursuits to benefit our country as a whole."
In the letter, the Republican congressmen state that Garland "targeted concerned parents for heightened surveillance" and took "federal criminal prosecutions against pro-life activists while allowing brazen fire bombings of pregnancy centers." However, according to the GOP senators, he did not act as he should have:
Rather than use your position to pursue the politics and partisan policies of the far-left, we suggest you fulfill your duty as the chief law enforcement officer of the Federal Government to advance the interests of the United States and hold accountable the Chinese Communist Party and international organizations responsible for their role in the COVID-19 pandemic. To the extent you find a legal impediment to holding the Chinese Communist Party officials accountable under your agency’s existing statutory authorities, we encourage you to specifically identify such limitations in federal law in your response to this letter.
