Colorado congressmembers showed Washington, D.C., last week why the West is renowned for our independence.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, Rep. Joe Neguse and Rep. Jason Crow fought back against corruption, overreach and abuse of power.

For Boebert, Neguse and Crow, the fight is against a U.S. Department of Justice that has gone rogue under Attorney General Pam Bondi and U.S. attorneys across the nation who are not ashamed to do President Donald Trump’s political bidding with the justice system.

During these trying times, Colorado needs bipartisan agreement that abuse of power in a nation that stands for “justice for all”  will not be tolerated.

Rep. Jason Crow

Nothing from this administration has disturbed us more than Trump’s assertion that members of Congress, including Colorado’s Jason Crow, should be tried for treason – noting that it was “punishable by death” — because they urged members of the U.S. military not to obey illegal orders.

But the fact that Trump found a U.S. attorney willing to do his bidding and seat a grand jury to pursue those charges is baffling. Fortunately, the jurors saw through the U.S. government’s efforts to railroad six American patriots, all of whom first served in the military before becoming politicians. A grand jury refused to indict Crow and the other five Democrats who participated in the video.

Crow has not been silent despite the threats from the president of the United States, saying emphatically that he and others are standing up to a corrupt Justice Department.

“But that is the moment that we are in,” Crow told The Denver Post. “And I think every American is starting to see that, and the tide is turning.”

The tide is indeed turning.

Rep. Lauren Boebert

Boebert was one of four Republicans who signed a discharge petition in the U.S. House to force a vote on legislation requiring the Justice Department to release a trove of documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein child sex abuse.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act passed by the U.S. House and Senate and signed into law by Trump specifically prohibited redacting the documents to protect people “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure or foreign dignitary.”

This week, after viewing unredacted versions of the Epstein files, Boebert doubled down on her criticism of those in positions of power who are covering up for those suspected of abuse. In a brief video interview immediately after viewing the documents, she said there were names redacted who were discussing rape who were clearly not victims. If that is true, then the U.S. Justice Department has failed to comply with the clear language of the transparency act. Making matters worse, the Justice Department failed to protect victims, some of whom were named or pictured in the files, missing key redactions that would protect survivors of prostitution, sexual abuse and rape.

Boebert simply told Newsweek that she didn’t think “everyone there that was talking about underage girls being trafficked are victims.”

Who is the DOJ protecting?

Rep. Joe Neguse

Neguse also went after the Justice Department last week, helping a bipartisan group of lawmakers highlight the agency’s corruption during a five-hour hearing with Bondi.

Lawmakers mostly focused on the botched release of the Epstein files and the failure of the Justice Department over decades and multiple administrations to bring criminal charges in the case. If it were not for the work of a Miami Herald reporter exposing sweetheart deals in a series called “Perversion of Justice,” Epstein would have gotten away with his crimes. Now Americans are demanding that those who joined Epstein in raping children and abusing women must face justice.

Neguse took a different tack, highlighting other ways the Bondi has spurned justice.

First, he quoted Bondi, “If you come for law enforcement, the Trump administration will come for you.”

Then he played a video clip of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. A man in the video can clearly be heard yelling at Capitol police and accusing them of selling out for a pension, and calling them the Nazi and the Gestapo. Then the man then yells “(Expletive) them. Kill them!”

“Attorney General Bondi, that man works for you now, right?” Neguse asks, running through the criminal charges the man faced stemming from his involvement in the Jan. 6 effort to prevent Biden from being seated as president.

“He does work for me,” Bondi said. “I believe he was pardoned by President Donald Trump.”

Then Neguse asked Bondi about the gutting of the Public Integrity Section within the Department of Justice, an agency tasked with the “investigation and prosecution of all federal crimes affecting government integrity, including bribery of public officials, election crimes, and other related offenses.”

Neguse said the agency went from 35 employees to two under Bondi. Bondi fired back that prior administrations had weaponized the agency, but Neguse cut her off, instead turning to her gutting of the Justice Department’s unit tasked with investigating cryptocurrency.

“She eliminated the team. Why? Because her boss, the president of the United States, is making money hand over fist. $1.4 billion over the last year through cryptocurrency holdings. I think what is happening at the Department of Justice is a disgrace.”

It is a disgrace.

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