US Justice Department sends letter to Congressman Robert Garcia over alleged threat to Elon Musk News
Kim Shiflett, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
US Justice Department sends letter to Congressman Robert Garcia over alleged threat to Elon Musk

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) sent California congressman Robert Garcia a letter Monday insinuating that Garcia’s comments about Elon Musk on CNN constituted a threat, and asking for clarification. Garcia said on the air in response to a question about how Democrats can stop Elon Musk, “What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is a fight for democracy.” Acting US Attorney for DC Ed Martin requested a response from Garcia by February 24.

Garcia posted the letter to his Bluesky account, with a caption stating that “members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump administration.”

“No reasonable person would view my comments as a threat. We are living in a dangerous time, and elected members of Congress must have the right to forcefully oppose the Trump Administration. We will not be silenced,” Garcia said in a press release. 

At the first Department of Government Efficiency Subcommittee (DOGE) hearing in February, Garcia said of Musk, “He’s the world’s richest man… He was the biggest political donor in the last election… He has billions of dollars in conflicts of interest and he is leading a power grab which is also abided by and encouraged by Donald Trump…”

The DOJ also sent a letter to New York Senator Chuck Schumer over his 2020 comments aimed at US Supreme Court justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch. Schumer stated that they would “pay a price” if they voted to overturn abortion rights case Roe v. Wade. The DOJ has made no further comments about the letters sent to Garcia and Schumer.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Scottsboro Boys arrested

On March 25, 1931, nine black teenagers were arrested in Paint Rock, Alabama for allegedly raping two white women. Twelve days later, the young men were put on trial in the nearby town of Scottsboro. After numerous the proceedings culminated in two landmark decisions by the US Supreme Court, Powell v. Alabama and Norris v. Alabama. Ultimately, the death sentences issued by the jury were overturned, but the defendants were nonetheless sent to prison. The trials of the Scottsboro Boys have come to symbolize the role of race in the criminal justice system of the Jim Crow South. Read a history of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys, as composed by Law Professor Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law.