Merrick Garland Vows To Protect DOJ From Being ‘Used As A Political Weapon’

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday fiercely defended the independence of the U.S. Department of Justice, calling the threats toward public servants “outrageous.”

In a speech addressed to the workforce of the department, Garland said that “we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon” or for law enforcement to be “treated as an apparatus of politics.”

Garland said he has witnessed DOJ personnel become a target of “dangerous” and “outrageous” attacks during the three and a half years he’s been leading the department.

“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,” Garland said.

The attorney general praised the people in his department for their continued commitment to their work in an impartial manner in the face of threats.

“The way you do that work makes clear that the public servants of the Department of Justice do not bend to politics,” he said. “And that they will not break under pressure.”

During Garland’s tenure, the DOJ has been targeted by Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, who has claimed without any evidence that his criminal cases are a result of an effort orchestrated by Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden to put him behind bars.

“Every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent. And I’m winning most of them and I’ll win the rest on appeal,” Trump said during the debate Tuesday evening.

“Every one of those cases was involved with the DOJ, from Atlanta and [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis — to the attorney general of New York and the DA in New York,” he continued.

The former president has faced federal criminal charges over his efforts to undo the 2020 election result. A grand jury reindicted him on four charges linked to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, after the Supreme Court ruled Trump was immune from prosecution for “official acts.”

A federal judge in Florida threw out Trump’s classified documents case over the summer. Special counsel Jack Smith has appealed the decision.

In Georgia, a judge presiding over his state election interference case brought by Willis tossed out two counts against the former president on Thursday. A state court is also due to hear Trump’s appeal in his effort to get Willis disqualified from the case in December.

Meanwhile, his sentencing in the New York hush money case, where Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, has been delayed until after the election.

In his pitch to voters, Trump has threatened to jail his adversaries if he wins in November as part of a wider plan to seek retribution if he returns to the White House.

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” he wrote on his Truth Social account earlier this month.

There is no evidence to support Trump’s claim about widespread election fraud in the U.S.

Under Project 2025, the policy road map put together by the Heritage Foundation that is meant to serve as a blueprint for a second Trump administration, the DOJ would come under the president’s control.

Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from the 900-page document, even though many of his staffers and former aides had a role in drafting it.

“I have nothing to do with Project 2025,” he said Tuesday.