Sept. 12 (UPI) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday blasted what he called an “escalation of attacks” on Department of Justice personnel in the run-up to November’s elections during a speech to departmental employees.
Garland’s address to DOJ agents, prosecutors, correctional officers, victims service specialists, grantmaking experts, administrative professionals and other employees came as Republican 2024 presidential Donald Trump has ramped up his attacks against federal officials who have brought multiple charges against him, ranging from election interference to mishandling classified documents.
Trump denies any guilt in the cases and has, without producing any evidence, frequently accused the Biden administration of “weaponizing” the officially neutral Justice Department against him.
He has simultaneously voiced plans to use the DOJ to prosecute his political enemies should he regain the White House.
Without mentioning the former president, Garland said it is “outrageous” that DOJ employees are being placed in danger by what he called “conspiracy theories.”
“Over the past three and a half years, there has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department’s career lawyers, agents, and other personnel that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work,” Garland said Thursday.
“These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence.
“Through your continued work, you have made clear that the Justice Department will not be intimidated by these attacks,” he added. “But it is dangerous — and outrageous — that you have to endure them.”
It is dangerous, he said, “to target and intimidate individual employees of this Department solely for doing their jobs. And it is outrageous that you have to face these unfounded attacks because you are doing what is right and upholding the rule of law. You deserve better.”
Garland also vowed to safeguard the “norm” of the Justice Department’s political neutrality as a key safeguard of American democracy.
“For us, adhering to these policies, principles, and norms in everything we do is how we fulfill the promise that is foundational to our democracy — that all people will be protected equally under the law, and that all people will be held accountable equally under the law,” he said.
Garland’s speech to DOJ employees echoed similar concerns he voiced in June during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee as he disputed allegations by Republican lawmakers that both the federal and state criminal cases against Trump are politically motivated.
Specifically, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, attempted to suggest Trump’s conviction in May on 34 counts related to falsifying business records was somehow part of a DOJ conspiracy against the former president.
Garland denounced what he called the “repeated attacks” on the Justice Department “unprecedented and they are unfounded,” adding how such attacks “have not, and they will not, influence our decision-making.”
“It comes alongside false claims that a jury verdict in a state trial, brought by a local district attorney, was somehow controlled by the Justice Department,” Garland said. “That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself.”
