July 8, 2018
Note: This vote is now over. Your Action Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to vote ‘NO’ on the nomination of Brian Benczkowski (Bench-Cow-Ski) to head the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division. Background Brian Benczkowski is the most dangerous Trump nomination you’ve never heard of. The Senate is expected to vote next week on his nomination to head the Criminal Division of the DOJ. The Criminal Division is involved with Robert Mueller’s TrumpRussia investigation and oversees federal prosecutors, including U.S. Attorneys handling matters referred by Mueller, such as the Michael Cohen investigation in the Southern District of New York. As head of the Criminal Division, Benczkowski would be in a position to limit or suppress actions taken in the Mueller investigation and related investigations, and serve as a backchannel of information about the investigation to Sessions or Trump. Benczkowski previously worked for Jeff Sessions in the Senate and served as head of the Trump transition team at the DOJ. He has no prosecutorial experience. He represented Putin-allied Alfa Bank which has been accused of a secret computer connection with the Trump Organization. It is not publicly known whether that relationship remains under investigation. While Benczkowski has agreed to recuse himself from Alfa Bank matters, he refuses to commit to recuse from the Russia investigation. For these reasons, all 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee have written a letter saying his nomination should be withdrawn. Despite these objections, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Benczkowski’s nomination and the full Senate is likely to vote on it this coming week. Benczkowski would be in a position to replace Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if the campaign that House Republicans are waging to replace him succeeds. Script This is [NAME] and I’m a constituent in [ZIP]. I urge Sen [____] to vote no on the nomination of Brian Benczkowski to head the Criminal Division of the DOJ. Benczkowski has no prosecutorial experience, worked on the Trump transition team and represented Putin-affiliated Alfa Bank. He has refused to recuse from Russia-related matters, which puts him in a position to interfere with Robert Mueller’s investigation and related matters. The American people deserve a full investigation of Russia’s interference in our election and any connection with the Trump campaign without the appearance of potential conflict.