Attorney general fields lawmakers’ questions during congressional testimony

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday told House lawmakers that the Justice Department was not a politicized institution. He also condemned public criticisms of career Justice Department officials for, as he characterized it, simply doing their jobs in prosecuting former President Donald Trump and others.

What did he say about Trump’s recent conviction in New York? He insisted that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was an independent, state-level institution. He denied that Bragg’s office was coordinating with the Justice Department in its prosecution of Trump. He also refrained from commenting on other prosecutions against Trump, saying those matters were before courts.

What did he say about allegations that FBI agents at Mar-a-Lago were authorized to use deadly force during the search? Garland told lawmakers that it was normal procedure for FBI search warrants to contain a clause involving the deadly use of force, but its intended purpose was actually to place limits on such force. Trump claimed in a May 21 social media post that the FBI had authorized its agents to use deadly force if necessary while serving the warrant at his Florida estate. The FBI agents were looking for classified documents that Trump had allegedly retained and mishandled after his term in office. The Justice Department said in a court filing that the FBI had conducted its search at the residence when it believed that Trump and his family would not be at the residence.

What did he say about the audio recordings of investigators’ interview with Biden? The Justice Department will not publish the audio recordings of President Joe Biden’s two days’ worth of interviews with special counsel Robert Hur, Garland said. Releasing the audio recordings would have a chilling effect on interview subjects in future Justice Department investigations because they would have reason to fear the release of such recordings, he said. Garland acknowledged the transcripts had been edited for clarity by removing verbal slip-ups and filler words.

Were other topics discussed? He fielded questions about the Justice Department’s efforts to deter terrorist attacks against the United States—the chance of which had increased since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas late last year, he said. Garland also discussed crime rates nationwide, which he said were decreasing.

Dig deeper: Read Leo Briceno’s report in The Stew about how Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told lawmakers yesterday the COVID-19 lab leak was “not a conspiracy theory.”