Several GOP lawmakers are demanding that the Biden administration's Attorney General Merrick Garland take action to protect journalist Andy Ngo and other reporters from Antifa's orchestrated campaign of violence and intimidation.
The Post Millennial's editor-at-large was covering the latest far-left protest in Portland last weekend when he was chased and beaten by black-clad Antifa extremists, marking the second time Ngo was brutalized in the Rose City.
On the one-year anniversary of Portland riots that commenced in the aftermath of George Floyd's death, Ngo sought refuge in the downtown Nines hotel while being pursued by an angered mob of Antifa radicals, shown in posts on social media.
Ngo, the author of Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy, was tackled and punched before he escaped inside the nearby hotel.
Ngo was seen crouching behind the hotel's front desk as clerks attempted to secure the premises, observed Twitter users. Meanwhile, protesters chanted and pounded on the glass windows to taunt Ngo. "I can't wait for you to come out, Andy!" a veteran high-ranking Antifa agitator shouted on-camera. "You thought the milkshakes were bad last time? We're gonna beat the f*ck out of you, b*tch!"
"No journalist in America should ever face violence for doing his or her job," Ngo said on Wednesday following the attack. "Yet on Friday, May 28, Antifa tried to kill me again while I was reporting on the ongoing protests and riots in Portland..."
In the wake of Ngo's brutal assault by Antifa militants, Republican Reps. Dan Bishop, Jim Jordan, Andy Biggs, Mike Johnson, and Cliff Bentz questioned Garland how the Justice Department is using federal civil rights law to protect journalists reporting on Antifa's acts that's devastating local communities.
The representatives noted in the memo dated Tuesday that the Committee has urged the Biden administration on repeated occasions to address the ongoing left-wing violence in Portland, arguing that Garland's refusal has emboldened radical agitators to target and attack members of the free press with ease and comfort.
The House Committee on the Judiciary has jurisdiction over matters concerning "subversive activities affecting the internal security of the United States" as well as "criminal law enforcement and criminalization" under House Rule X.
On Feb. 24, Ngo delivered testimony to Congress on the rise of far-left domestic terrorism in America. Ngo was one of the main witnesses called to testify before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.
Ngo stressed the importance of not downplaying Antifa's violent extremism.
After the Committee heard Ngo's testimony, Rep. Jordan wrote to Garland, asking how the Department of Justice would enforce federal law and protect federal property from the civil unrest terrorizing the residential streets of Portland.
The letter emphasized that Garland ignored Jordan's inquiry and failed to respond. "The Biden Administration's tacit acceptance of left-wing political violence in Portland and the accompanying attacks on journalists is unacceptable and dangerous," the memo read, noting that the lack of pushback from the White House "will only incentivize further violence and attacks."
"Please explain how the Justice Department, in coordination with other relevant federal and state law enforcement agencies, is working to prevent individuals from engaging in violence and intimidation designed to impair the free exercise and enjoyment of rights and privileges that Mr. Ngo and other journalists possess under the Constitution and laws of the United States," the letter states.
The memo prompted Garland to delineate the Justice Department's current efforts to identify and and prosecute the criminal suspects responsible for assaulting Ngo and other reporters in violation of federal statues that secure their civil rights.
Garland is requested to respond to the demands no later than 5:00 p.m. on June 22 and to provide an unclassified staff-level briefing upon reading the memo.
"Antifa wants me dead because I document what they want to stay hidden," Ngo commented on Twitter after the recent incident. "The attacks against me and threats on my life are retribution for my work as a journalist, recording the tactics and true ideology of an extremist clandestine movement that relies on deception and regards the truth as the greatest threat of all. They want the right to hide their identities behind masks, and erase records of their arrests and alleged crimes."
Ngo was later escorted through the hotel's back entrance by Portland Fire and Rescue and transported via ambulance to the hospital.
He was treated in the emergency room for multiple injuries to the head and body. Bloody gashes covered Ngo's hand and leg. The reporter's stomach was bruised and eye left bleeding. When he was last beaten by Antifa in 2019, doctors told Ngo that he could have died from the brain hemorrhage caused by the cerebral blows.
"...it is the right of every journalist, protected and preserved by the founding fathers, to report freely without fear," Ngo tweeted. Despite making more than two dozen reports of subsequent threats to police, Ngo said "no action has been taken."
President Joe Biden's then-pick for attorney general had answered riot-related questions in the Senate on Feb. 22 in support of the nomination. Garland indicated that while he believed the storming of the Capitol building on Jan. 6 was domestic terrorism, Antifa's incessant attacks of federal property, such as the Mark O. Hatfield Courthouse, over the riotous summer in Portland were not.
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