Attorney General Merrick Garland came in with a mission to calm the waters at the Justice Department and restore its reputation for independence after four turbulent years during Donald Trump's presidency.
After a tumultuous tenure clouded by two failed criminal prosecutions against the incoming president, Attorney General Merrick Garland is leaving the Justice Department the same way he came in: trying to defend it against political attacks.
The Florida jurist finds ‘no historical precedent’ for plan to release a special counsel’s dossier while a case is ongoing.
Republicans roasted Attorney General Merrick Garland on social media after a video of him doing a victory lap while leaving the Department of Justice became viral. In the clip, which was posted on Friday via X, a celebratory Garland walked and thanked cheering department staffers while the outgoing AG exited out of the building.
Within days of becoming attorney general, he assembled his deputies and told them to turn over every Trump rock. Blame a lumbering system—and an electorate that didn’t care.
From the daily newsletter: a report from Washington. Plus: the coming sale of TikTok; Susan B. Glasser on “the Trump effect”; and remembering David Lynch.
In a farewell speech to Justice Department staffers, outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appeared to rebuke attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies who have "wrongly criticized" the department as politically motivated.
Garland was too timid. By waiting to go after Trump aggressively he gave the authoritarian movement the ability to run out the clock, avoid accountability, and return to power. Garland should have come out of the chute at 200 mph and taken dead aim at Trump’s criminality from Day 1.
With Donald Trump returning to the White House, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended the Justice Department and urged its ongoing independence.
My firm, the Livingston Group, was subjected to your unjust persecution. We’d like an apology.
The Justice Department said Garland plans to release Jack Smith's report on Trump's 2020 election interference efforts.
Washington – During hearings on Merrick Garland's nomination to be President Joe Biden's attorney general, the longtime federal appeals court judge told senators in 2021 that he hoped to “turn down the volume” on public discourse about the Justice Department and return to the days when the agency was not the “center of partisan disagreement.”