A Republican congressman is demanding to know why Attorney General Merrick Garland is taking a hard pass on prosecuting a left-wing loudmouth who threatened his family.
Indiana GOP Rep. Jim Banks sent Garland a letter asking why the feds refused to go after a suspect named Aaron Thompson. The threats occurred in 2023, and Banks reportedly sent the letter in December.
But he made it public this week after Garland defended the Justice Department’s crime-fighting techniques in a Washington Post opinion article last week.
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In the op-ed, Garland complained about threats made against federal law enforcement officials “for simply doing their jobs.”
His agency, he added, “makes decisions about criminal investigations based only on the facts and the law.” The feds do not investigate Americans “because of their last name, their political affiliation, the size of their bank account, where they come from or what they look like,” he maintained.
“We investigate and prosecute violations of federal law — nothing more, nothing less,” Garland wrote.
Banks wanted to know why that did not apply to Thompson.
“When Capitol Police referred the criminal case against Aaron Thompson to the U.S. Attorney for Northern District of Indiana, they declined to prosecute despite clear evidence that Thompson violated federal law,” Banks informed Garland.
“I have no doubt that you, as a husband and father yourself, would do anything to protect your family, but I want to know why you have refused to protect mine.”
According to Banks’ letter, Thompson left menacing voicemails at Banks’ congressional office.
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After announcing he was a gun owner in the messages, he added in one, “Here’s the choice. Your daughters grow up without their dad or you grow old without your daughters. Boom, boom, you pick.”
In another one, Thompson reportedly said, “Three daughters. Hey, hey, hey, three bullets, hey, hey, hey, one wife, yay. Oh yeah, yeah, we’ll give her two bullets.”
According to reports, the FBI did visit Thompson but left without taking action. He had reportedly told U.S. Capitol Police that he was drunk at the time of the calls but admitted he made the threats because he disagreed with Banks’ conservative politics.
Thompson was prosecuted by a state district attorney in Banks’ area. He pleaded guilty in October to felony and misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to two years probation.
In a statement to the Examiner, an unnamed DOJ official said, “The Department investigates threats to public officials regardless of their party affiliation, and we have prosecuted multiple cases of threats made to both Republican and Democratic Members of Congress.”
“The Attorney General has told Congress that he views threats to public officials as threats to our democracy, and the Department will continue to treat them as such,” the spokesperson added.
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To support that claim, the DOJ spokesperson claimed the agency has prosecuted more than a dozen cases threats made against Republicans, including Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz.
In that case, the feds prosecuted a Wyoming man, Christopher Podlesnik, for threats made in 2021 against Gaetz and GOP Sens. Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso. A judge sentenced him to 18 months in prison.
Yet the official did not explain why the feds passed on prosecuting Thompson specifically for the threats against Banks.
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