WASHINGTON – Judge Merrick B. Garland, President Biden’s nominee for Attorney General, said on Monday that the threat of domestic extremism was greater today than at the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and he promised that , if confirmed, would make the federal government investigation into the Capitol riot its first priority.
Judge Garland, who led the Justice Department’s prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombing, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on the first day of its confirmation hearings that the initial stages of the current inquiry into “white supremacists and others who invaded the Capitol “seemed to be aggressive and” perfectly appropriate “.
He received a largely positive reception from members of both parties on the panel, five years after Senate Republicans blocked his appointment to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama to fill the vacancy created by the death of Judge Antonin Scalia.
Judge Garland, 68, who was upheld at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC District Circuit in 1997, promised on Monday to restore the independence of a Department of Justice that has undergone profound politicization under the Trump administration.
“I don’t intend to be interfered by anyone,” said Judge Garland. If confirmed, he said, it will maintain the principle that “the attorney general represents the public interest”.
Judge Garland also said he would reinvigorate the department’s civil rights division while the United States is undergoing a painful and destabilizing reckoning with systemic racism.
“Communities of color and other minorities still face discrimination in housing, education, employment and the criminal justice system,” said Judge Garland in his opening statement. But he said he did not support the call by some members of the left that emerged from civil rights protests this summer to strip the police.
The Trump administration has worked to restrict the protection of civil rights for transgender people and minorities. It has also blocked policies aimed at combating systemic racism, sexism, homophobia and other implicit prejudices.
“I consider my responsibilities with respect to the civil rights division at the top of my list of top priorities,” said Judge Garland.
Judge Garland answered questions on a wide range of additional topics, including criminal justice reform, antitrust cases, the power of large technology companies, Congressional oversight and departmental morale.
Discussing the threat of domestic terrorism, Judge Garland said, “We are facing a more dangerous period than in Oklahoma City.”
He called the Capitol attack “the most heinous attack on democratic processes I have ever seen, and which I never expected to see in my life.”
In addition to an immediate briefing on the investigation, he said, “It would give career promoters who are working this way 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all the resources they could need.”
Fighting extremism is “central” to the Department of Justice’s mission and often overlaps with the mission to combat systemic racism, as in its fight against the Ku Klux Klan, said Judge Garland.
But the hearing was also a reminder of how politics hangs over many of the high-profile issues that Judge Garland will face if the Senate confirms it, especially as the Capitol riot investigation reaches members of Trump’s inner circle and more defendants say that acted on the order of former President Donald J. Trump to prevent Biden from taking office.
Asked by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, whether the investigation into the Capitol riot should harass people “upstream” from those who violated the building, including “funders, organizers, leaders or helpers and accomplices who were not present on Capitol Hill on January 6, “Judge Garland replied,” We will follow these leads wherever they lead. “
Republicans focused mainly on two politically charged investigations of the Trump era: a federal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and the work of a special lawyer, John H. Durham, to determine whether Obama-era officials made mistakes in 2016 when he investigated Trump campaign officials and their ties to Russia.
Judge Garland said he did not discuss the Hunter Biden case with the president and reiterated that the Justice Department would make the final decisions on investigations and prosecutions.
“This investigation is going on quietly, not publicly, as all investigations should,” he said. He noted that the United States attorney appointed by Trump in Delaware was asked to stay and oversee Hunter Biden’s investigation.
“I have absolutely no reason to doubt that it was the right decision,” he said.
Responding to a question about Mr. Durham’s investigation, Judge Garland suggested that he would let the investigation unfold, but avoided making any explicit promises about how he would handle it.
“I have no reason – as far as I know now, which is actually very little – to make any decision,” said Judge Garland. “I have no reason to think that he should not stay in office,” he said of Durham.
Regarding the disclosure of any report by Mr. Durham, he added: “I, however, would have to talk to Mr. Durham and understand the nature of what he has been doing and the nature of the report.”
Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the committee’s top Republican, said he would not “accept exceptions” to responses to Durham’s investigation that “were not as explicit” as he wanted “because I think you are an honorable person. “
Judge Garland has excellent legal credentials, a moderate reputation and a long history of serving in the Department of Justice. After working for Judge William J. Brennan Jr., he served as a federal prosecutor for the US Attorney General’s office in Washington under President George HW Bush and was chosen by Jamie Gorelick, the president’s assistant attorney general. Bill Clinton, to serve as deputy chief.
In addition to Oklahoma City, Judge Garland oversaw important cases that included Theodore J. Kaczynski (also known as Unabomber) and the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing before they were confirmed to the federal appeals court. When Obama appointed him to the Supreme Court in 2016, he was widely portrayed as a moderate.
Major Republicans, including Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a committee member, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said they would support Judge Garland to serve as Biden’s attorney general.
Democrats elected him on Monday as the necessary antidote to the four years that Trump treated Justice Department investigators as enemies to be crushed or players to be used to attack his political enemies and protect his allies, especially when he sought to thwart and undo Russia’s investigation.
Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in his opening remarks that “the crimes of the Trump Justice Department brought this nation to the brink” and that Judge Garland would need “to restore faith of the American people in the rule of law and offer equal justice. ”
Asked about Mr. Trump’s statement, “I have an absolute right to do what I want with the Department of Justice,” Judge Garland said the president “is limited by the Constitution” and that, in any case, Mr. Biden had promised not to interfere with the department’s work.
Judge Garland’s response drew an implicit contrast to William P. Barr, who served in the Trump administration as attorney general for almost two years and seemed to see his role serving the president’s interests far more than other post-Watergate attorney generals. .
“Decisions will be made by the department itself and conducted by the attorney general,” he said, “without respect for partisanship, without respect for the aggressor’s power or lack of power, respect for the aggressor’s influence or lack of influence. “
Judge Garland was mostly restrained and moderate, but he was thrilled when he described his family’s escape from anti-Semitism and persecution in Eastern Europe and asylum in America.
“The country welcomed us – and protected us,” he said, his voice breaking. “I feel an obligation to the country to give back. This is the biggest and best use of my own skill set for giving back. And so I really want to be the kind of attorney general you’re saying that I could become. “
Judge Garland promised to cooperate with a Congressional investigation into the Trump Justice Department’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, which resulted in the separation of a large number of parents from their children.
“I think the policy was shameful,” said Judge Garland. “I can’t imagine anything worse than pulling the parents out of their children. And we will provide all the cooperation we can. “