U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) called for a “reckoning” in the U.S. Justice Department as he kept his promise to hold up all of President Biden’s department nominations.
“Many of the nominees are unqualified, some of them seem actively corrupt and some, I assume, are good people,” said Vance in a floor speech objecting to Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-Calif.) attempt to confirm a Biden Justice nominee by unanimous consent.
“But the problem is not this specific nominee,” said Vance. “The problem is the fact that the Department of Justice has been corrupted under the Biden administration, and there needs to be some reckoning."
Vance announced in June that he would “hold all Department of Justice nominations,” citing the department’s attempted prosecution of former President Donald Trump.
“If Merrick Garland wants to use these officials to harass Joe Biden’s political opponents, we will grind his department to a halt,” said Vance.
Vance, 38, was first elected to serve Ohio in the U.S. Senate in the Nov. 2022 General Election. He defeated U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), winning 53% to Ryan’s 47%.
A Middletown native, Vance graduated from Middletown High School and then served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2003 to 2007.
He graduated from Ohio State University and received a J.D. from Yale University Law School.
Previous to serving in the U.S. Senate, Vance’s career included working as a law clerk for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and in the U.S. District Court for Kentucky’s Eastern District. He also worked at the Sidley Austin law firm and as a principle in venture capital firm Mithril Capital Management.
Vance also is the author of the the 2016 book, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis," which reached The New York Times Bestseller list in 2016 and 2017.
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