‘I Will NOT Be Intimidated!’ Merrick Garland Vigorously Defends DOJ in Fiery House Hearing Opener
Attorney General Merrick Garland came out swinging in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday morning, lambasting Republicans for peddling “unprecedented and unfounded” conspiracy theories and other “repeated attacks” on the Department of Justice.
House Republicans are threatening to hold Garland in contempt of Congress over his refusal to turn over the audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur. The interview was part of the investigation into Biden’s handling of classified material, and Hur ultimately decided not to bring charges, angering the president’s critics.
The White House had asserted executive privilege over the recording of the interview, sending a letter to House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) arguing there was no “legitimate need” for ” such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials” to be released and Republicans clearly intended to “manipulate” them for “partisan political purposes.” According to the letter, Garland himself recommended to the president that he exert executive privilege over the recording because of his concern that other government officials would be less inclined to cooperate with investigations in the future.
Garland began his opening remarks at Tuesday morning’s hearing listing several recent accomplishments of the DOJ, including arrests made in various investigations, efforts made to protect voting rights, fraud prosecutions, and actions taken against alleged monopolies like Live Nation and Apple.
He specifically called out those who threaten public officials with violence — including those who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Let me be clear,” said Garland, “if anyone threatens public servants with violence, we will hold them accountable, and we will continue to protect our democratic institutions like this one.”
Garland vowed that as attorney general he “will continue to forcefully defend the independence of the Justice Department from improper influence or interference of any kind,” and “will continue to fiercely protect the integrity of our criminal investigations.”
He emphasized that while the DOJ was willing to comply with the committee’s “legitimate requests for information,” the transcript of Biden’s testimony was sufficient, and the audio recordings would not be released, citing again the concern about how it could influence future witnesses’ participation.
Garland denounced accusations Republicans were making about former President Donald Trump’s conviction for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his hush money trial as “false claims,” noting that the conviction was from “a jury verdict in a state trial, brought by a local District Attorney,” and not under the control of the DOJ.
“That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself,” Garland declared, and was comprised of “baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods,” putting at risk the individual career agents and prosecutors who were being “singled out just for doing their jobs” and being subjected to “heinous threats of violence.”
“These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented and they are unfounded,” he continued. “These attacks have not, and they will not, influence our decision-making.”
“I view contempt as a serious matter,” said Garland, “but I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”
“I will not be intimidated,” he concluded. “And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending democracy.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.
