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Attorney General Merrick Garland condemned partisan attacks on the Justice Department at a tense congressional hearing Tuesday, as House Republicans sought to advance baseless claims that the criminal justice system has been weaponized against former President Donald Trump.
“These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented, and they are unfounded,” Garland said in his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee. “I will not be intimidated, and the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs, free from political influence, and we will not back down from defending democracy.”
Trump has long claimed that he is the victim of a criminal justice system weaponized by his political enemies looking to hurt his chances in the November election. On the verge of his official nomination as the GOP presidential candidate, Republicans have used their narrow majority in the House to advance that false narrative.
At the hearing Tuesday, Trump's hush money case was a major line of Republican questioning, despite it having taken place in a jurisdiction over which the U.S. attorney general has no authority.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., accused the attorney general of "dispatching" Matthew Colangelo, a former senior official at the DOJ, to the Manhattan district attorney's office. Alongside DA Alvin Bragg, Colangelo is currently a prime target for Republicans in their attacks against the New York prosecutors.
"I did not dispatch Mr. Colangelo anywhere," Garland said. "I assume he spoke — he applied for a job there and got the job. I can tell you I had nothing to do with it."
House Republicans also repeatedly questioned Garland about the audio recording of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden in the investigation into the handling of classified documents after Biden's term as vice president. Hur declined to bring charges in the case, but his report — which characterized Biden as an "elderly man with a poor memory" — sparked a frenzy among Republicans.
Garland has refused to hand over the recording of Hur's interview (the transcript of which is already public), arguing that its release could jeopardize sensitive criminal investigations down the road. Biden has asserted executive privilege over the recordings. Last month, the House Oversight and Judiciary committees voted to advance contempt proceedings against Garland for declining to comply with a subpoena to deliver the tape.
Democrats on the panel portrayed the hearing and the attacks on the DOJ as a transparent attempt by Republican colleagues to deflect from Trump's criminal conviction.
"They don’t know how to cope with a justice system that, in fact, treats Donald Trump the same it would any other citizen," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said, "and so they have to push these conspiracy theories that they know are patently false."