Former federal prosecutors are disputing Democratic claims that a Homeland Security Investigations search of Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home violated Justice Department policy, arguing that the so-called “60-day rule” limiting politically sensitive investigative actions before an election is an unwritten practice rather than a formal legal requirement.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a lengthy statement alleging the Justice Department broke protocol by taking “overt actions in politically-sensitive matters in the 60 days before an election.”
“Just 22 days before the elections, this is blatant political intimidation and an attempt to interfere with the Congresswoman’s reelection,” Raskin wrote.
But Abhishek Kambil, a former federal prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that the DOJ’s own manual outlining procedures for criminal investigations contains no explicit 60-day blackout period before elections.
“The 60-day requirement is not something that’s in the justice manual,” Kambil said. “That’s basically an unwritten practice of what DOJ typically does, and the justice manual itself does not have the time frame on that.”
Kambil said actions that could be seen as influencing an election generally require prior approval from the Attorney General or Deputy Attorney General, but the practice functions as a consultation requirement rather than an outright ban.
“It doesn’t create a ban; it just creates effectively a consultation requirement to higher level leadership before it can happen, but there is no statute or anything else preventing this,” Kambil said.
Jim Trusty, another former federal prosecutor, pointed to Democrats’ own record on the issue, citing former special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election.
“It’s difficult to not point out the dirty hands of the people that might complain about election interference,” Trusty said.
“Democrats definitely can’t contend that it’s a politicized investigation after everything that happened in the Trump era,” Kambil added.
Background on the 60-day practice
The unwritten
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