Florida Sues Attorney General

Attorney General is sued by the state of Florida for obstructing state investigation into second assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The state of Florida has launched its own investigation into the circumstances surrounding the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump (in Palm Beach, Florida) due to its lack of confidence in the federal investigation. And now the state has sued Attorney General Merrick Garland for obstructing and covering up the state investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI, blocking witnesses from speaking to local police and withholding evidence. The lawsuit is in the federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Federal authorities, in their dealings with the Florida attorney general’s office, cited a statute that allows local law enforcement to be removed from an investigation if the target is a top U.S. official or a presidential candidate from one of the country’s major political parties. However, the Florida lawsuit states that “no court has interpreted this provision. But, applying traditional principles of statutory interpretation, the statute is much narrower than the [US] Justice Department asserts.”

The state also argues that blocking its own investigation also violates the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which gives the states very broad powers. There are two important factors here.

First, the contradiction between Washington and the states is clearly exacerbated. Distrust of the central government — when it is represented by the other party — has reached a very high level in the Florida case. Second, there is a reference to the 10th Amendment, according to which everything that is not expressly named in the Constitution as the competence of the federal government is left to the discretion of the states. On the basis of the 10th Amendment, several decisions of Congress and the White House have been “nullified” (i.e. canceled locally) on several occasions.

Invoking the 10th Amendment is a very bad sign, especially when it comes to one of the presidential candidates. It is almost a statement not to recognize the victory of the other candidate.