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Nearly 100 members of Congress call for probe into DOJ's alleged racial profiling of Asians

30 July 2021
Dan Ackermann

Nearly 100 members of Congress members urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate the Justice Department's alleged racial profiling of Asians, according to a letter shared with Axios.

Why it matters: The case of Anming Hu, a scientist who was baselessly targeted in an espionage probe, has renewed scrutiny of the DOJ after an FBI agent admitted to falsely implicating the Chinese Canadian.

  • The bicameral coalition, led by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), delivered the letter to Garland on Thursday.

What they're saying: "Over the years, multiple people who happened to be of Asian descent have been falsely accused by the Department of Justice of espionage," the letter states, citing Hu, Wen Ho Lee, Sherry Chen and Xiaoxing Xi.

  • "The common thread in every one of these cases was a defendant with an Asian surname — and an innocent life that was turned upside down."
  • Lawmakers are asking for an investigation into DOJ operations and specifically the China Initiative, a program launched under President Donald Trump that targeted the Chinese government's attempts to steal intellectual property.
  • They also asked for an update on the agency's implicit bias trainings, which were mandated in 2016 after the DOJ dropped several espionage charges against Asian researchers.

"This is across administrations and it's both Democratic and Republican administrations, making the same mistakes over and over again," Lieu told Axios.

  • It's not confined to the DOJ either, he said, referring to a "rogue" Commerce Department division that relied on race-based investigations.
  • "I would urge all Cabinet secretaries to look at their agencies and figure out if they need to do training for their personnel."

Worth noting: At a roundtable hosted by Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) last month, Chen and Xi gave emotional testimonies about the anxiety and turmoil caused by the DOJ's actions.

  • Last week, the DOJ dropped individual cases against five Chinese researchers accused of hiding ties to the Chinese military.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.