Emergency Conservation Program Improvement Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today, the Senate will vote to confirm Colin McDonald to be Assistant Attorney General for the National Fraud Enforcement Division. Before Mr. McDonald's hearing, I had many questions about this newly created division. I still don't have answers.

But one thing is clear: Mr. McDonald is more committed to scoring political points for President Trump than he is to fighting waste, fraud, and abuse--much of which is being perpetrated by this administration. Mr. McDonald supervises the so-called Weaponization Working Group, which he coled with disgraced nominee Ed Martin prior to Mr. Martin's demotion due to alleged improper handling of grand jury materials.

According to Mr. Martin, the goal of this working group is to ``name'' and ``shame'' the President's political opponents, even if they haven't committed a crime.

The working group also employs Jared Wise, who stormed the Capitol on January 6 and was charged with assault after encouraging rioters who were attacking law enforcement by yelling, ``Yeah, f*** them! Yeah, kill `em!''

During his hearing, Mr. McDonald repeatedly refused to confirm whether he ever witnessed members of the Weaponization Working Group violate the Justice Department Manual or the law. He also refused to condemn Mr. Wise's continued employment.

President Trump has more than doubled his net worth since returning to office, and fraudsters who made massive contributions to the President have regularly been rewarded with pardons. Mr. McDonald refused to condemn these and other pardons or commit to cracking down on the ongoing pay-for-play pardon scheme. He has demonstrated that he is unwilling to stand up to President Trump and his administration of grifters.

I oppose Mr. McDonald's nomination. I urge my colleagues to join me.

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