WOBURN -- Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons said Wednesday there is a "direct parallel" between the Federal Bureau of Investigation's historic ransacking of the private residence of President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Maura Healey's unprecedented indictment of Republican Congressional candidate Dean Tran.
"Both of these instances are politically-driven hit jobs that occurred in the midst of a major election year where a certain political party is terrified over the very real possibility Americans will reject them in November," Lyons said, referencing the Democrats' tenuous hold on Congress. "Both of these efforts share one major thing in common in that the purpose is to permanently take out a political rival."
Tran, a former state Senator challenging incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, was indicted by Healey in July over a three-year old incident involving a legal firearms transaction. Trump on Monday night saw his private residence stormed by at least 30 federal agents, reportedly over a dispute about the possession of presidential archive records.
Both incidents were unprecedented. No American president had ever experienced his residence raided by federal agents, and Tran's indictment marked the first instance in her seven-plus years as attorney general that Healey pursued charges against a political candidate, despite being provided with evidence over the years of numerous elected Democrats engaging in unlawful activity.
Lyons noted that Trahan has been a staunch supporter of Healey's. He pointed to recent reports showing that Trahan since Jan. 1 has donated at least $3,000 to Healey's campaign, while Healey in May hosted a $30,000-$50,000 fundraising event for Trahan.
"Healey appears to be taking her cues from the White House, and vice-versa for the Democrats running the White House and the Justice Department," Lyons said. "What we've got here is the weaponization of supposedly non-partisan law enforcement agencies for political purposes.
"These are the actions of third-world dictatorships, not the United States of America, and voters have every right to clean house in November."
