The Wall Street Journal published a scorching op ed on Jan. 14 written by a very angry former congressman Bob Livingstone, who today heads the Livingstone Group lobbying firm, addressed to outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland and demanding from him a “profuse apology” to his firm and the American people. Livingstone charges that the FBI, under the watchful eye of Garland, politically targeted his firm for destruction and jail with false accusations of supposed violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)—a catch-all law which is routinely used to target political enemies of the administration who disagree with Washington’s foreign policy, charging them with failure to register as “agents” of whichever foreign power happens to be out of favor in Washington at the time. It was accusations of FARA violations that Biden’s Dept. of Justice used to target outspoken war critic Scott Ritter, TV commentator Dmitri Simes, and many others.
Garland is one of the 80 names listed as “government gangsters” by Kash Patel, Trump’s nominee as the next FBI Director, published in his September 2023 book, Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy. Patel names these as people to be targeted in any effort to clean out the “Deep State.”
Garland’s inclusion in that list is well deserved, as Livingstone’s op ed makes clear.
“I am a victim of your dysfunctional leadership, but unlike many of your targets, I have survived unscathed… In 2022 two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents came to my home in New Orleans and questioned me about incidents involving our representation of an international client in 2018. Having nothing to hide, I spoke with them for 2½ hours… At the end of the interview, the agents presented me with a search warrant for all my company’s records related to their questions… The next day, with my wife listening, I called the agent and asked directly: ‘Am I a target?’ To my great shock, the agent said yes…
“Every day and night for 20 months, I lived with the possibility that the hammer could drop at any moment. Everything I worked for would be tarnished. My firm would collapse, my employees would lose their jobs, all of us would be ruined in the press, and I could go to prison.
“The conduct of law enforcement was torturous. In January 2024, a prosecutor interviewed a member of my staff, using curse words and accusing her of lying. In December 2023 an FBI agent harassed our FARA compliance officer, David Lonie, who had been a congressional staffer on the House Rules Committee before working with us for many years. Lonie was an honorable and decent man, the epitome of integrity and honor. The agent nevertheless told him that if he knew what was good for him, he would talk. Dave was scared to death. He went to bed on Dec. 31, 2023, and didn’t wake the next day. His family is devastated…
“My company and I were innocent of all charges, and while I am pleased this Kafkaesque harassment is over, I am not content to simply shrug my shoulders and move on. I am convinced the department’s actions were political and malicious, targeting me as a lobbyist who has supported Donald Trump and been critical of President Biden… Prosecutors have said they are no longer interested in pursuing charges. That’s nice but hardly satisfactory. As a matter of justice, Mr. Garland, you owe us and the American people a profuse apology.”
