WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden presented his pick as the nation’s highest-ranking law enforcement officer on Thursday and turned to veteran Judge Merrick Garland to help de-politicize the Justice Department and restore the rule of law after what the incoming president described as four years of lawlessness under President Donald Trump.
Biden also described the pro-Trump gang that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday as “domestic terrorists” and attacked the Republican president for instigating the siege.
“For the past four years, we’ve had a president who has made his disdain for our democracy, our constitution and the rule of law clear in everything he has done,” said Biden, promising a dramatic shift in his administration. “Above all, we must restore the honor, integrity and independence of the Justice Department that has been so badly damaged.”
If confirmed by the Senate, which is likely, Garland would take over as the US Attorney General at a critical time for the country and the agency. He is said to inherit urgent challenges related to police and civil rights, an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son Hunter and democratic calls for a criminal investigation into Trump after he leaves office.
Those issues aside, Garland would be tasked with restoring the American people’s wider mistrust of the Justice Department sparked during a tumultuous four years under Trump’s leadership. The Republican president regularly interfered with the department, most notably firing FBI Director James Comey while his agency investigated Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Biden swore that Garland’s loyalty would not lie with the president, but with the law and the constitution.
“You don’t work for me,” Biden accused him as he introduced Garland.
Garland first faced the public on Biden’s side and pledged to restore an equal commitment to law and order and integrity to the nation’s highest law enforcement agency, noting Wednesday’s attack on the Capitol as a result of the failure to do so.
“As anyone who has seen yesterday’s events in Washington now understands that the rule of law, if they did not understand it before, is not just the expression of some lawyers, but the foundation of our democracy,” said Garland.
Garland may be a household name for political observers.
Senate Republicans rejected him four years ago and even refused to hold hearings when President Barack Obama nominated him to the Supreme Court. His prospects as attorney general were almost certain as the Democrats scored the Senate majority by winning both seats in the Georgia Senate.
Biden also introduced three other senior Justice Department posts on Thursday, including Lisa Monaco, Obama’s Homeland Security Adviser as Deputy Attorney General and former Chief of Civil Rights of Justice, Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General, the No. He also appointed an assistant attorney general for civil rights, Kristen Clarke, now the chair of Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, an advocacy group.
Garland was selected over other finalists, including former Senator Doug Jones, D-Ala., And former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
The department is expected to change course drastically under new leadership, including a different approach to civil rights issues and national police policies according to the racial bill fueled by the continued deaths of black Americans by law enforcement.
Black and Latino advocates wanted a black attorney general or someone with a background in civil rights and criminal justice reforms. Groups including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund were in favor of the appointment of the Garland Supreme Court, but the extent of minority groups’ support for the post of Attorney General was not immediately clear.
Although Garland is white, the selection of Gupta and Clarke, two women with significant civil rights experience, seemed to allay all concerns and served as a signal that progressive goals would be prioritized in the new administration. Gupta is the daughter of immigrants from India and Clarke’s parents are from Jamaica.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris addressed the differences in racial justice directly at Thursday’s event, linking them to the storming of the Capitol this week.
She said that establishing the conditions that led to the violence in Washington requires the new administration to understand “ how to reform, how to transform, a legal system that doesn’t work equally for everyone – a justice system that is perceived differently depending on whether you are white or black. “
“We witnessed two legal systems when we saw one that allowed extremists to storm the United States Capitol, and another that released tear gas on peaceful protesters last summer,” Harris added. “We know we should be better.”
After working for the Justice Department decades ago, Garland would return to an office radically different from the one he left. A proliferation of aggressive cyber and counterintelligence threats from foreign opponents has made countries like China, Russia and North Korea top priorities for federal law enforcement.
Monaco in particular brings significant national security experience to the department, including in cybersecurity – a particularly pressing issue as the US government faces a devastating hack from federal agencies that have linked officials to Russia.
Some of the problems from Garland’s first stint in the department remain.
The FBI has been facing an increase in violence from anti-governmental and racially motivated extremists. As a senior Justice Department official, Garland helped manage the federal government’s response to the 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma City government facility that killed 168 people. The bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was later executed.
Garland calls the work “the most important thing I have done” and was known for keeping a framed photograph of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in his Washington courthouse.
Garland has served on the federal appeals court in Washington since 1997. Before that, he worked in private practice, as well as with a federal prosecutor, a senior official in the criminal division of the Justice Department, and as the chief assistant attorney general.
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AP writer Michael Balsamo in Washington contributed.