WASHINGTON – Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee attorney general, is expected to be faced with questions Monday about how he plans to deal with a number of daunting challenges, including an investigation into the president’s son and the actions of the former president and his closest advisers.
At a confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee, Garland is likely to emphasize his goal of protecting the Justice Department’s independence from political interference by the White House in law enforcement investigations, after William Barr was often accused, including by federal judges, of placing Donald Trump’s interests ahead of the department.
When his appointment was announced last month, he said he will strive for “similar cases to be treated equally, that there is not one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends and the other for enemies”.
Senators will demand assurances that he will not allow politics to influence a tax investigation launched under Barr into Biden’s son, Hunter, or dealings with the Ukrainian government, former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. He will also face questions about Special Counsel John Durham, who has been appointed by Barr to investigate the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.
Democrats may urge him to explain how he will assess the allegations that prompted comments from Trump and Giuliani to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The Senate voted not to condemn the former president, but Republican leader Mitch McConnell said, “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil suits and former presidents are not immune from accountability by either.”
Garland and his deputies face the task of leading the federal investigation into the riot, with more than 250 individuals charged so far and more than 550 investigations ongoing. In his prepared remarks for the hearing, he called it “a horrific attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government”.
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He will take an even greater challenge by deciding whether and how to change federal law to give the FBI more leeway to investigate domestic terrorism, without violating the right to free speech. Matthew Schneider, who as a US Attorney in Detroit accused members of an extremist group of conspiring to kidnap the Michigan governor, said this is one of the biggest questions law enforcement is facing.
“Every time there is a major event in US history, there has been a change in law,” he said. “There was organized crime in the 1970s, they passed RICO [the federal racketeering law]Credit card fraud in the 80s, they passed ID statutes. After 9/11 they passed the Patriot Act. So the question is, do you think we need a new domestic terrorism law after January 6? ‘
If confirmed – as it seems likely, with Democrats controlling the Senate – Garland will return to the department he left 24 years ago to become a federal appeals judge in Washington. He first came to the public’s attention in 1995: After the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, Garland was appointed to oversee the government’s handling of the case.
President Bill Clinton brought him to the court of appeal, and in 2016 Barack Obama nominated Garland to succeed Antonin Scalia at the U.S. Supreme Court. But Republicans blocked the nomination, and Garland never even had a hearing.
Garland’s prepared remarks said the mission to uphold civil rights remains urgent. “We don’t have equal justice yet. Colored communities and other minorities continue to face discrimination in housing, education, employment and criminal justice,” he said.
A bipartisan group of more than 150 former Justice Department officials signed a letter in support of Garland’s current appointment, including four former Attorney General – Democrats Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, and Republicans Alberto Gonzales and Michael Mukasey.
Announcing his choice of Garland as Attorney General, Biden said, “You will not work for me. You are not the president or the vice president’s attorney. Your loyalty should not be. It’s up to the law. , the constitution, the people of this nation. “
Monday, Garland will answer hours of questions about how he will put that goal into practice.
