U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday staunchly defended the Justice Department, rejecting claims by Republican lawmakers that he had politicized the criminal justice system to stop Donald Trump from becoming president again.
Garland, the country’s top law enforcement official, told the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee he would not allow politics to interfere with the Justice Department's independent criminal investigations. He accused Republican critics of the agency of peddling conspiracy theories that could endanger federal law enforcement officers.
"I will not be intimidated, and the Justice Department will not be intimidated,” Garland said. “We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence, and we will not back down from defending our democracy."
Garland’s appearance before a congressional panel was his first since a New York state court jury last week convicted Trump of 34 felony counts of illegally trying to influence the outcome of his successful 2016 run for the White House. Trump was accused of falsifying his business records to keep voters from learning about a hush money payment to a porn film star who claimed to have had a one-night sexual encounter with Trump a decade earlier.
Trump denied the liaison and all charges against him, but now faces a July 11 sentencing in which he could be placed on probation or imprisoned for up to four years.
Trump still faces 54 charges in three other state and federal criminal cases — two brought by special counsel Jack Smith, a Justice Department employee, over Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his mishandling of classified documents — and a state case in Georgia also tied to his actions trying to upend the 2020 result.
All three cases are tied up in legal wrangling, possibly leaving the New York verdict as the only one decided before Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential candidate, faces President Joe Biden in the November 5 election.
Some Republicans have vowed to try to defund Smith’s two investigations of Trump, currently an unlikely prospect with Democrats controlling the Senate and Biden in the White House. Trump, if he wins election, could order his attorney general to drop the charges against him.
"Many Americans believe there is now a double standard in our justice system," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said on Tuesday. "They believe that because there is."
House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, points with the gavel during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Department of Justice, on Capitol Hill in Washington, June 4, 2024.
Garland assailed Republicans for threatening to defund Smith's investigations and also accused them of making "false claims that a jury verdict [against Trump] in a state trial brought by a local district attorney was somehow controlled by the Justice Department.
"That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself," he said.
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz on Tuesday repeatedly asked Garland whether he had "dispatched" former Justice Department official Matthew Colangelo to work with the team of New York City prosecutors who tried the case against Trump.
Colangelo, who left the department to work for New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, gave the opening statement in Trump's criminal trial and questioned some witnesses in the case.
"It's false," Garland replied. "I did not dispatch Mr. Colangelo anywhere."
Democratic lawmakers rejected the claim that the Justice Department only targets Republicans, noting that three prominent Democrats currently are facing criminal indictments, including Biden’s son Hunter, whose trial on a federal gun charge started this week. He faces tax charges in September. In addition to Hunter Biden, Senator Robert Menendez is on trial on federal bribery charges, and Representative Henry Cuellar also faces a bribery indictment.