New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she has not received a response from the Department of Justice to inform her if she is being investigated.
Independent reporter Nicholas Ballasy confronted her in the Capitol and asked if she was concerned.
“Hey, congresswoman, can you tell us, are you under investigation by DoJ? Have they told you yet? Have they responded?” the reporter said.
“I mean, they haven’t been respond — I asked them, they haven’t responded to me, but, you know, once again, I’m fully using the First Amendment to inform people of their constitutional rights. They say a lot of things, but I’ve written a formal letter and they won’t respond,” the representative said.
“What would result from a possible arrest of a lawmaker, a sitting Democrat lawmaker, over immigration by the Trump Administration?” Ballasy continued.
“I mean, whether it’s about immigration or anything else, the arrest of, I think, a lawmaker without any actual grounds, I think it represents a tremendous sea change in escalation in what this administration is willing to do to bend laws, norms, etc… Not how normal functioning democracy works,” the lawmaker said, ignoring that just more than a year ago a former president and leading candidate for the presidency was arrested.
“And on top of what it means for us domestically, I think globally many of our allies, partners across the world will be extremely alarmed by such authoritarian development in the United States. So I sure hope that for all the saber-rattling that this administration is doing, that they really think about the global consequences of what it means for the United States,” she said.
But Border Czar Tom Homan, Department of Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and others have hinted at her possible arrest.
The congresswoman organized a “Know Your Rights” webinar earlier this year, in which lawyers advised illegal immigrants on how to respond to interactions with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities.
The internet forum, held in both English and Spanish, provided legal advice and distributed papers, including one declaring that immigrants “do not have to open the door” for ICE officials unless they had a judge-signed warrant.
Ocasio-Cortez’s office also supplied information on how to receive pro bono legal assistance and urged undocumented people to sign privacy release forms, which would allow her office to interfere in deportation proceedings.
Ocasio-Cortez has forcefully denied any allegations that her actions were inappropriate, labeling the prospect of a federal inquiry “politically motivated.”
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, the lawmaker stated that the DOJ was succumbing to political pressure from the Trump administration.
“I write to request clarity on whether the Department of Justice (DOJ) has yielded to political pressure and attempts to weaponize the agency against elected officials whose speech they disagree with,” she wrote. “Over the past two weeks, ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan has gone on multiple forums threatening political prosecution against me, citing resources I distributed informing my constituents and the American public of their constitutional and legal rights.”
Ocasio-Cortez has accused Homan of seeking to “intimidate” her through DOJ channels, calling his campaign a flagrant violation of her First Amendment rights.
Homan, for his part, has not backed down. During an appearance on The Ingraham Angle at the time, he acknowledged that he contacted Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove to raise the problem.
“I sent an email today to the Deputy Attorney General. At what level is that impediment? I’m not an attorney, I’m not a prosecutor. Is that impeding our law enforcement efforts?” he said.
Homan added, “So maybe AOC is going to be in trouble now, but I need the DOJ to opine on that. Because impediment is impediment in my opinion.”