DAILY WIRE
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed Special Counsel Jack Smith and President Joe Biden during a podcast this week after aides for both parties met amid the criminal prosecutions of former President Donald Trump.
Smith’s top aide, Jay Bratt, met with Caroline Seba, deputy chief of staff for the White House counsel’s office, on March 31, according to White House visitor logs. Danielle Ray, an FBI agent in the Washington, D.C., field office, also joined Bratt and Seba at the meeting.
Cruz responded to the meeting during remarks he made on an episode of his “Verdict” podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson.
“I actually am stunned that they would do this meeting at the White House. I’m absolutely stunned,” Cruz said. “As I said, I cannot think of an instance where a line prosecutor ever meets with the White House, where an AUSA ever meets with the White House. Typically, White House meetings are done by senior officials. They’re done by the Attorney General, they’re done by the Deputy Attorney General, they’re done by an Assistant Attorney General, they might be done by a Deputy Assistant Attorney General or an Associate Deputy Attorney General, they’re pretty much always done with a ledge affairs staffer from DOJ in there to make sure that the communications are appropriate.”
Cruz said that there were plenty of issues pertaining to policy and national security where it was appropriate for the DOJ to meet with the White House but this was not one of instances.
“I do not know of a single instance in which in an AUSA, an Assistant US Attorney has ever had a White House meeting,” Cruz said. “I’m not saying it’s never happened, but I don’t know of it. But then take the whole thing and put it on steroids. This guy isn’t just some random AUSA. He’s a senior lawyer in the Special Counsel’s office.”
“The whole point, why do you appoint a Special Counsel? You appoint a Special Counsel because there’s a conflict of interest with the White House because politically, you need some separation from the White House,” he continued. “For a lawyer from the Special Counsel’s Office to go meet with the White House. No one has articulated an innocent explanation, and I don’t think there can be one this is corruption on its face.”
