WATCH: Sen. Schiff Presses Former Attorney General on Todd Blanche’s View of the Weaponization of the Justice Department

Washington, D.C. - Today, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing concerning Todd Blanche's nomination to be Attorney General, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pressed former Attorney General John Ashcroft, who testified in support of Blanche, on whether he agrees with Blanche's assessment that the president is entitled to use the Justice Department to prosecute his political enemies.

Schiff also questioned Ashcroft on whether he had ever had a grand jury unanimously refuse to indict in a prosecution case brought by his Justice Department, which has occurred several times under Blanche's leadership.

Watch the full clip here. Download the clip HERE.

Key Excerpts:

On Blanche's view of the president's weaponization of the Justice Department:

Schiff: Mr. Ashcroft, thank you for your service. I wanted to ask you about some remarks the [Acting] Attorney General made when he said that he thought the president - he was asked about the president targeting his political opponents and enemies for prosecution. And I don't subscribe to the - what I think is the false equivalence. We've never seen a president behave this way, where he openly and privately calls on the Attorney General to prosecute his enemies. And I want to ask you about that, Mr. Ashcroft, because Mr. Blanche has said that he believes the president has both the right and the duty to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies. Do you subscribe to that view?

Ashcroft: Thank you, Senator. I believe that the Attorney General of the United States has the right and responsibility to enforce the law uniformly. And if the law has been broken by the president's enemies, he has a duty. They do not become exempt from following the law merely by their enmity to the President of the United States. As a matter of fact, the people who break the law are in enmity with the people of the United States, whose expression of what is the law has been developed in this body, in the Congress of the United States. So, we used to call people who break the law public enemies. And so, my view is that whether a person has been a political supporter or not of the President of the United States is not the determining factor regarding prosecution. It's whether a person has violated the law, and in enforcing the law, the Attorney General is carrying out the will expressed in the Congress.

Schiff: Mr. Attorney General, you realize, having sat here, my time is very limited. That really isn't my question. My question is: do you think it is appropriate for the president to call on the Attorney General to prosecute one of his enemies, and acting on that, request the president for the Attorney General to do so.

Ashcroft: The President of the United States is the executive branch of the United States whose charge it is to enforce the laws of the United States.

[…]

Schiff: So, Mr. Ashcroft -

Ashcroft: So the president, I believe, his job is to have an administration which calls for the enforcement of the laws of the United States without regard to the political preferences of the people who are perpetrators or accused individuals in the system.

Schiff: Okay, I'm not sure that I understand your answer, except you seem to accept the premise that it is okay now for a president to call the Attorney General and ask him to prosecute his enemies. You don't seem to have a problem with that.

On the erosion of the Justice Department's independence:

Schiff: […] And if the president's enemy takes a photo of seashells, do you think it's appropriate to prosecute them? If Senators make a video stating the plain law and Constitution that you can disobey an illegal order, you think it's okay for the president or others to call on them to be prosecuted? I don't think so. I don't think so. And I don't think you would have done that as Attorney General. I hope you wouldn't have. If you would have, you were not the Attorney General I thought you were. […] What has never been appropriate, and particularly so after Watergate, was for the Attorney General of the United States to break that wall and call on his Attorney General to prosecute his enemies. And I would say even without any basis to do so. And this Justice Department has been willing to do so and has gone before grand juries. And we have never, I think, seen the likes of this either in these high-profile cases where the grand jurors, in some cases, to a person, have refused an indictment. How often did you have that happen to you, Mr. Ashcroft? Last question I'll ask you. How often, Mr. Attorney General, did you seek an indictment as a prosecutor, and have not a single grand juror vote to indict? Did that ever happen to you?

Ashcroft: I don't know. I just don't know.

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