Two months ago Attorney General Loretta Lynch admitted during congressional testimony that Justice Department attorneys were looking into punishment for the fossil fuel industry and certain individuals, including academics and researchers. Their crime? Rejection or denial of climate change and therefore being opposed to President Obama’s agenda on the issue.

Today, five Republican Senators have sent a letter to Lynch reminding her that in America, we don’t have thought police and the Justice Department doesn’t have the power or authority to punish an entire industry because the people in it they think differently than the progressives in charge of the government.

“We write today to demand that the Department of Justice immediately cease its ongoing use of law enforcement resources to stifle private debate on one of the most controversial public issues of our time — climate change,” the letter states. “As you well know, initiating criminal prosecution for a private entity’s opinions on climate change is a blatant violation of the First Amendment and an abuse of power that rises to the level of prosecutorial misconduct.”

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