Merrick Garland vows Justice Department won’t be used as a ‘political weapon’ as Trump’s threats fuel harassment

Attorney General Merrick Garland told staff at the Department of Justice that the agency will not be used as a “political weapon” as Donald Trump campaigns on a message of political persecution with barely veiled threats to turn the government into a tool of retribution.

In an at-times emotional speech to Justice Department staff on Thursday, Garland defended a “promise that we will not allow this Department to be used as a political weapon,” and that the agency’s norms are “a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics.”

The Justice Department’s public servants “do not bend to politics” and “will fiercely protect the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations,” Garland said.

His remarks follow attacks from the Republican presidential candidate and his allies who have accused Garland and President Joe Biden of “weaponizing” the Justice Department to criminally prosecute him in two cases under special counsel Jack Smith.

Trump was criminally charged for his efforts to reverse his election loss in 2020, and for allegedly withholding reams of classified documents after leaving office, then obstructing efforts to get them back.

But another special counsel, Robert Hur, has separately investigated Biden for his own withholding of classified documents from his time as vice president, though Hur ultimately decided against charging the president

His son Hunter Biden, however, pleaded guilty last week to tax fraud charges brought by a third special counsel, David Weiss.

The Justice Department’s investigation into Democratic Senator Bob Menendez also yieldedguilty verdicts for corruption and bribery.

Yet,