Merrick Garland defends Justice Department against claims of bias in politically charged cases
WASHINGTON (TND) — Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared before the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for a contentious hearing focused on politically charged investigations in a marathon hearing to defend the Department of Justice from claims of bias and improper application of the law.
Wednesday’s hearing is the first time Garland has appeared before Congress since the indictments of former President Donald Trump and the president’s son, Hunter Biden. Both investigations have faced heavy Republican scrutiny and are the subject of multiple congressional inquiries from GOP-led House committees.
The leader of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has ramped up his requests for documents and interviews with DOJ officials over the last week after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy directed committees to start an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Citing the investigations into the former president and Hunter Biden, Jordan accused Garland of leading the Justice Department to carry out two standards of justice based on political affiliations and calculations.
“There's one investigation protecting President Biden there's another one attacking President Trump. Justice Department's got both sides of the equation covered,” he said.
Garland opened the hearing pushing back on the notion that his department is guided by political motives from both sides of the aisle.
“Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” Garland said. “As the president himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the president’s lawyer.
“I will add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people. Our job is to follow the facts and the law, that is what we do.”
Republican lawmakers have lambasted Trump’s prosecutions in two cases — his alleged mishandling and withholding of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol — as politicization of the justice system. Trump's cases did not receive much attention during Wednesday's hearing, with most of the questioning focused on the president's son.
Several have pointed at the prosecution of Hunter Biden, who had a plea deal that would have helped him avoid jail time fall through at the last minute, shows special treatment to allies of the Biden administration.
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s investigation of Hunter Biden for alleged tax crimes and a gun charge was already underway when the Biden administration came into office. Weiss, a Trump appointee, was asked to stay and continue his work.
Shortly after the plea deal fell apart, two IRS whistleblowers testified that Weiss had slow-walked the investigation along with other hurdles placed in front of them by the Justice Department and federal government. Garland and Weiss disputed their claims in letters to House committees investigating the DOJ, but that has done little to soothe Republican concerns.
Weiss was also appointed a special counsel for the investigation, which GOP lawmakers had called for previously, but they have since criticized Garland for acting too late and said Weiss can’t be trusted after the initial plea deal. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., questioned Garland on what material differences there were by making Weiss special counsel since he had previously testified that he had essentially absolute authority over the case. Garland declined to go into details, instead saying he made Weiss a special counsel because he requested it.
Garland frequently avoided directly answering questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about any of the active investigations the department is conducting, citing longstanding policy and protection of defendants' civil liberties. He said he also promised members of Congress to stay out of the Hunter Biden investigation.
"I have intentionally not involved myself in the facts of the case, not because I am trying to get out of responsibility, because I am trying to pursue my responsibility," he said during one line of questioning about Weiss.
Weiss brought a felony gun charge against Hunter Biden last week and could still bring tax charges against him.
The yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden and what Republican lawmakers see as failures and political favoritism are at the center of the impeachment inquiry into the president. GOP lawmakers have also claimed that Hunter Biden's foreign business activities personally enriched and were assisted by the president, though they have yet to uncover or release concrete evidence.
Democrats in Congress have said the Justice Department has acted properly in the indictments of Hunter Biden and Trump and accused Republicans of politicizing the issue.
“Extreme MAGA Republicans have poisoned our vital oversight work. They've ignored our legitimate oversight responsibilities and use their power to stage one political stunt after another,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said. “It wasted countless taxpayer dollars in baseless investigations into President Biden and his family desperate to find evidence for an absurd impeachment and desperate to distract from the mounting legal peril facing Donald Trump.”
Asked if the rhetoric from Republican lawmakers about the department and investigations into Trump and Hunter Biden "had any basis in reality," Garland said, "No, it does not."
Garland came into the department with a mission to restore the image of its independence from the White House, which has become more challenging with the indictments of the leading Republican presidential candidate and the president’s son.
He appointed a special counsel, former federal prosecutor Jack Smith, to oversee the Trump investigations due to the “extraordinary circumstances” of the potential rematch in 2024. The move was meant to maintain credibility of the investigation and blunt criticisms of a politicized prosecution, but it has not stopped Trump’s allies in Congress and some Republican voters from criticizing the prosecution.
One Republican, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, came to Garland's defense and said he was in an impossible situation.
“Do you know what people would have said if you had asked for U.S. Attorney Weiss’ resignation when you became attorney general?” Buck said. “They would have said that you were obstructing the Hunter Biden investigation and you were firing a Republican appointee so that you could appoint a Democrat."
Garland was also asked about Ray Epps, a former Marine who was the target of a conspiracy theory about the Jan. 6 riot that accused him of being a covert government agent that helped instigate the insurrection. The attorney general said that Epps was not a Justice Department employee or informant, and added that he had no personal knowledge of any or how many agents of the government were present on Jan. 6.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., claimed that no one believes that and accused Garland of perjuring himself.
Epps was charged with a misdemeanor for his alleged activities during the Jan. 6 riot and is expected to plead guilty. He is also suing Fox News and Tucker Carlson for defamation over claims made about him on the network.
