Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued a memo to Justice Department personnel reiterating the department’s policy of prohibiting communication with members of Congress.
Garland said all communication with Congress must be handled by the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA). Per DOJ policy, "no department employee may communicate with Senators, Representatives, congressional committees, or congressional staff without advance coordination, consultation, and approval by OLA."
"All congressional inquiries and correspondence from Members, committees, and staff should be immediately directed to OLA upon receipt," says Justice Manual 1-8.000.
Garland said these policies were designed to protect the DOJ’s "criminal and civil law enforcement decisions, and its legal judgments, from partisan or other inappropriate influences, whether real or perceived, direct or indict."
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They are also designed, Garland said, "to ensure that Congress may carry out its legislative investigatory and oversight functions."
Garland insisted that such policies were not "intended to conflict with or limit whistleblower protections."
The memorandum comes on the heels of a tumultuous few months for the DOJ and the FBI. Over the weekend, Tim Thibault, an assistant special agent-in-charge in the District of Columbia, retired amid allegations that he supposedly ran interference in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop.
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