WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, questioned Will Chamberlain, a senior counsel at the right-wing Article III Project, in today’s Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights hearing. Durbin questioned Mr. Chamberlain about condemning political violence.
In September, Mr. Chamberlain posted on X: “I’m fine with a living Constitution at the moment, tbh. There are a number of provisions that could be helpfully reinterpreted in light of the demands of our current problems to ensure that we can jail everyone celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death.”
“For the record, I condemn political violence, threats of violence, and the like from either [the] right or [the] left. Do you believe personally those who celebrate political violence should be put in jail?” Durbin asked.
Mr. Chamberlain responded, “No.”
“Despite your statement?” Durbin followed up.
Mr. Chamberlain responded, “It was a provocative X post. I don’t think that as a matter of what the law should be.”
Durbin followed up, “Do you believe individuals who advocate for political violence should be put in jail?
To which Mr. Chamberlain replied, “No, not on that alone.”
Durbin then asked about Chamberlain’s coworker at the Article III project, Mike Davis, who posted obscene statements about federal judges on X. On November 19, Mr. Davis posted: “Dear U.S. Magistrate (Fake) Judges: We will start naming and shaming you. For your pretrial release of violent criminals. Even denials of criminal complaint. F*** you. We’re going to make you famous.” On the day before that, Mr. Davis posted: “Dear U.S. Attorneys: Stop being p******. Charge agitators with assault, obstruction, conspiracy, and harboring. Do your f****** jobs. Or we will start calling you out. By name. And (very publicly) seek your removal. Enough is enough.”
“He [Mr. Davis] followed up on that by writing, ‘You know who’s excellent at naming and shaming?’ He then tagged you [Mr. Chamberlain] in his post. You responded to that by writing, ‘You beat me to it this time!’ Why do you consider offensive statements to be jailable crimes when they are expressed by your political opponents, but acceptable and only just ‘provocative’ when they are expressed by your boss?” Durbin asked.
Chamberlain deflected and said, “[Why did I] back a misstatement by my boss? I don’t think Mike Davis is calling for anybody’s jailing in that [post].”
Durbin responded, “The point I am trying to make is that we spend a lot of time in this Committee deciding that political violence is unacceptable—the right or the left. There are members of this Committee who argue all of the political violence is coming from the left. I don’t think that is true. I think it comes sadly from both sides, and I condemn all of it. Loose language such as yours from the so-called Article III Project is not helpful in reducing the amount of violence in this country against elected officials and judges.”
Durbin concluded, “There are limits to what we say and do, and this notion of impeaching all the judges we disagree with is a new, novel approach, one that is inconsistent with the kind of democracy we have developed to this point. I find real problems with that.”
Video of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s questions in Committee is available here for TV Stations.
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