Merrick Garland was Biden’s most popular selection. He’s now the target of everyone’s hatred.
He resorted to Tuesday’s hearing however, to retaliate.
Attorney General Merrick Garland testifies at an House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice, Tuesday 4 June 2024 in Washington, on Capitol Hill in Washington. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP
By ADAM WREN
Merrick Garland is adamant about his entire career with the Department of Justice on being an attorney general who is independent.
He has appointed three special counsels who will investigate the presidential campaign of Joe Biden — the one who nominated himand the nephew Hunter Biden and former President Donald Trump. He has convicted more than 1,200 people as of Jan. six defendants. He even negotiated the search for classified documents in the home that belonged to former vice president Mike Pence, for which the president decided not to nominate an attorney, and chose to not file any charges.
However, instead of being praised as a straight shooter Garland has been slammed. He’s a lonely man on a secluded island in Washington and is enduring a constant volley of blowback from both the left and right. The day he was on Capitol Hill Tuesday, he appeared to have been through with it.
“I won’t be scared. The Justice Department will not be intimidated,” Garland told Republican members of the House Oversight Committee as he began to defend the department and himself against Republicans attack.
In a time when Trump has called the system of criminal justice into question after his conviction by an Manhattan jury. Garland’s assertion on the fact that his system was functioning at the right track was striking. Garland was also clear about how serious the system he saw Republicans and their attacks.
“We are going to continue to complete our work free of the influence of politics. We will never relent in defending the rule of law,” Garland said in his remarks.
Garland’s time in office is credited with earning him a name as one the hated people of Washington and the subject of jokes for late-night TV hosts. Bill Maher called Garland “Attorney General Barney Fife” and claimed that “when we needed a pit bull, we got a purse dog.”
Then Doug Jones, the former Democratic senator and Biden all-time ally, who was thought of by the president to be an attorney general candidate prior to Garland’s appointment, defended Garland’s selection for the job.
“The nature of the beast, the nature of that job, is that you often have to take tough decisions, make tough decisions and move in certain directions that are not going to be popular with somebody, and it will be a target,” Jones explained.
Garland has supporters beyond Jones and his supporters, such as from D.C.’s large legal circles and within DOJ former DOJ employees. But he’s not an effective political participant. The criticism he’s been subjected to has come from both the left, right, and all the way in between.
In fact, Biden and his most trusted advisers have been criticized by Biden not only because he failed to tamp down Robert Hur’s special counsel inquiry into the dealings with classified papersand resulting in Biden being criticized politically about whether his memory was deteriorating — but also for dragging his feet on the DOJ’s probe into whether Trump had a hand in the 2020 presidential election. Democrats have gone as that they declare Garland’s appointment to the post as a “mistake,” and said he’s “Biden’s worst appointee by an order of magnitude.”
The day before, Republicans targeted him for not making Hur’s interviews public that Democrats worry could be used against the president. (Garland has stood up for the DOJ by saying that they have published transcripts.) They also criticized him for the criminal hush money case involving Trump, despite the fact that the case was filed through Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and had no connection to the Justice Department.
Garland declared it Garland called it a “conspiracy theory” that the Justice Department “somehow controlled” Bragg’s case. However, that didn’t help calm his GOP opponents.
“Of course he is corrupt,” Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.) said to POLITICO. “The entire Democratic Party over there is corrupt at the moment … It’s not surprising take a look at what they’ve done with President Trump. … The whole boat is in one, and are rowing towards the exact same way. And it has been a case of corruption.”
Republicans have criticized Garland right from the start in his hearing. “Justice is no longer a blind spot in America. Today, it’s driven by political considerations. One example is President Trump,” Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) declared during his inaugural speech.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) is an aide to the House Freedom Caucus, told POLITICO that “100 percent” Garland is corrupt. “It’s absolutely unbelievable … I didn’t think I’d ever see the day that in the United States of America, one political party was trying to detain their opponents. However, here we are.”
In his passionate testimonies, Garland defended himself and his department. “Certain members of this committee and the Oversight Committee are seeking contempt as a means of obtaining — for no legitimate purpose — sensitive law enforcement information that could harm the integrity of future investigations,” Garland stated.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for information.
For Biden Garland’s efforts to preserve his independence were not without a hit. He announced his nomination after his Jan. 6. Capitol attack. “Your loyalty is not to me,” Biden stated. “You will not be working for me. You’re not president’s or vice attorney of the president.”
Biden’s remarks in the moment could be seen as a criticism of Trump who relied upon his attorney generals Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr to back him.
Jones stated that Garland has been able to deliver.
“That is exactly what I think that the Biden administration was looking for: someone that would be careful, judicious, deliberate, professional and non-political,” Jones declared. “And I think that he definitely met that criteria. Today was an opportunity for him to stand in support department of justice Department of Justice in a extremely forceful manner. And the testimony today was, based on what I saw was a strong defence of the Department of Justice and its employees as well as democracy and legal system.”
Olivia Beavers contributed to this story.
