Attorney General Merrick Garland’s presence at a House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday was marked by lies, obfuscations, and repeated denials that the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden weaponized itself against Americans including former President Donald Trump. Instead of fessing up to the partisan games Americans know Garland and his bureaucrat subordinates are playing, the Democrat appointee opted to play the victim.
The dominant narrative touted by corporate media going into Tuesday’s House Judiciary hearing was that Garland would use the time to “push back on Republican attacks.”
The Wall Street Journal even suggested that Garland, who has earned a reputation for aiming his department’s incredible powers against the Biden regime’s political enemies like pro-lifers, parents, and election integrity advocates, is a “by-the-book, play-no-favorites” prosecutor.
Garland proudly leaned into these laughable media portrayals from the start. In his opening remarks, the failed SCOTUS nominee claimed Republicans’ efforts to find him in contempt of Congress for several abuses of power, including refusing to release audio of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s interview with President Joe Biden, only adds to “a long line of attacks on the Justice Department’s work” and his attempt to uphold rule of law.
He did not mention that he’s lied to Congress and obfuscated details in several key cases. Instead, Garland suggested the House’s attempt to carry out its funding and regulatory duties constituted “threats to defund” the DOJ for partisan reasons.
“These repeated attacks on the Justice Department are unprecedented and unfounded,” Garland said. “These attacks have not, and they will not, influence our decision making.”
The same man who turned a blind eye to the death threats leveled against the Supreme Court following its Dobbs v. Jackson ruling claimed DOJ employees are suffering “heinous threats of violence.” Cooperation with congressional oversight as required in the U.S. Constitution, however, he suggested would “jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”
“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 our democracy,” Garland concluded.
Crocodile Tears
Ranking Member Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., kicked off the hearing by claiming Garland’s time as attorney general has been marked by “thoughtfulness and decency.” Republicans strongly disagreed.
Nearly every time Republicans pressed in key issues like Garland’sm stifling of the release of Hur’s interview with Biden and Matthew Colangelo’s suspicious transfer from the DOJ to “jump start” the New York criminal case against Trump, Garland suggested their questions were “dangerous conspiracy theories” that “raise threats of violence” against his department.
The first evidence was when Garland claimed the DOJ does not “control” local district attorneys like Alvin Bragg, yet stopped short of confirming “communications” with such prosecutors or cooperating with committee members who want to see any alleged communications.
“You come in here and you lodge this attack that it’s a conspiracy theory that there is coordinated lawfare against Trump. And then when we say ‘Fine, just give us the documents, give us the correspondence. And then if it’s a conspiracy theory, that will be evident.’ But then you say, ‘Well, we’ll take your request, and then we’ll sort of work it through the DOJ’s accommodation process,’ then you’re actually advancing the ‘very dangerous conspiracy theory,’” Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz noted.
Later in the hearing, Garland smeared newly released evidence that the FBI was authorized to kill Trump during its raid on Mar-a-Lago as “false.” In so doing, he confirmed that his FBI agents were, in fact, authorized to potentially shoot at and even kill the former president who is seeking to unseat Democrats’ nominee this fall.
“As the FBI has explained, the document that’s being discussed is our standard use of force protocol which is a limitation on the use of force which is routinely part of the package for search warrants and was part of the package for the search of President Biden’s home as well,” Garland said.
He also defended the FBI’s decision to resurrect its censorship efforts ahead of the 2024 election.
“I would hope everybody in this room would want to know if one of our adversaries is acting as if they are American citizens on social media,” Garland said.
At one point, Garland appeared to get emotional over “election threats” to poll workers.
“Our democracy can’t work if those people have fear, threats that are urged against them, or if there’s actual violence against them,” Garland said.
His tears did not continue when he was asked about victims of Biden’s border invasion such as Georgia resident Laken Riley or those young and old who have lost their livelihoods to political prosecutions led by his department.