Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday urged prosecutors to protect the Department of Justice’s (DOJ’s) “mission,” in his first remarks since President-elect Donald Trump announced his selection for attorney general under his incoming administration.
Speaking at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Garland was giving a farewell speech to officials at the office as the nation’s top federal prosecutor.
“I may be coming to the end of my tenure at the Justice Department, but I know that all of you will continue in the department’s mission—what has always been its mission—to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights,” Garland said.
“The career lawyers of the Justice Department as a whole, you are the institutional backbone of this department. You are the historical memory of this department. You are the heart and soul of the department. You are the Justice Department.”
“I could not be more proud of you, and I could not be more grateful for all of the work that you have done to protect the American people.”
In his comments, Garland did not make mention of Trump’s election win or of former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was chosen by Trump to be his attorney general.
In November 2022, Garland named Jack Smith as special counsel to oversee two criminal investigations into Trump, culminating in felony charges being filed against the former president in Florida and Washington. Earlier that same year, FBI agents searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, recovering what officials say were classified materials.
Gaetz has been highly critical of the DOJ, saying over the summer in an interview that the agency has “deep state” officials who are against Trump and that the department has been effectively captured by those officials.
“You can’t just have the same career people who have grown up in a system that has fallen victim to political capture,” Gaetz said in an interview this summer.
In his statement announcing Gaetz as his choice for attorney general, Trump said that he values Gaetz’s role in “defeating the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, and exposing alarming and systemic Government Corruption and Weaponization.”
When then-special counsel Robert Mueller visited Capitol Hill to discuss the findings of the Russia investigation in 2019, Gaetz condemned the former FBI director for leading “so biased.”
In his questioning of Mueller, Gaetz at the time also suggested that Mueller’s investigation into the Russia collusion allegations was fraught with errors and speculation and that certain individuals who were involved were not criminally charged when they should have been.
“When people associated with Trump lie, you threw the book at him,” he told Mueller. “When Christopher Steele lied—nothing.”
The Justice Department under the first Trump administration appointed a special prosecutor, John Durham, to examine errors in the Russia investigation, but Gaetz criticized Durham, too, for failing to uncover enough damaging information about the FBI’s inquiry into Trump.
Last week, Gaetz said in a social media post that there needs to be a “full court press against this WEAPONIZED government that has been turned against our people.”
“And if that means ABOLISHING every one of the three letter agencies, from the FBI to the ATF, I’m ready to get going!” he said.
If confirmed as attorney general, he would oversee both the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
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