Garland vows DOJ won't be used as 'political weapon'

Amid escalating rhetoric from former President Donald Trump threatening to prosecute his enemies should he win the 2024 election, Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered remarks to the Justice Department workforce on Thursday urging they continue to adhere to longstanding principles intended to protect DOJ from improper politicization.

"Our norms are a promise that we will fiercely protect the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations," Garland said.

Garland added, "Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this Department to be used as a political weapon. And our 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 remarks come as Garland has sought to refute allegations from Trump and his allies of weaponization of the department through its prosecution of individuals involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as well as Special Counsel Jack Smith's dueling prosecutions of Trump himself for his alleged mishandling of classified documents and his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Those close to Garland have disputed those accusations as baseless -- pointing in part to DOJ's prosecution and conviction of Democrats like disgraced New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez on corruption charges as well as the separate Special Counsel prosecutions of President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Trump and his allies, in turn, have ramped up in recent months their promises to use the Justice Department as a tool of retribution against his political enemies -- with Trump in a Truth Social post over the weekend threatening "long term prison sentences" for "Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials" he baselessly accused of being involved in "cheating" in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

Garland forcefully rebuked what he describes as a "dangerous -- and outrageous" spike in threats targeting DOJ employees under his tenure.

"Over the past three and a half years, there has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department's career lawyers, agents, and other personnel that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work," Garland said. "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 used his remarks specifically to point to steps taken during his tenure he says have been aimed at isolating the department from allegations of politicization, such as re-implementing policies intended to limit contacts with the White House.

Those policies, however, were complicated by the Supreme Court's July ruling that effectively granted Trump immunity in his federal election subversion case over his alleged efforts to use the Justice Department to overturn the election. The court's conservative majority determined that Trump and other presidents should be shielded from any criminal liability for contacts with the DOJ, that they said clearly fall within the chief executive's core powers.

As a result, Special Counsel Smith returned a superseding indictment two weeks ago against Trump that stripped out any mentions of the alleged DOJ plot.