House Republicans clash with Attorney General Garland, accusing him of favoring Hunter Biden
WASHINGTON — House Republicans clashed with Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday, accusing him and the Justice Department of the “weaponization” of the department’s work in favor of President Joe Biden ‘s son Hunter.
Garland’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee was his first in two years and came at an unprecedented moment in the department’s history: He’s overseeing two cases against Donald Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, and another against the sitting president’s son.
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Republicans on the committee — led by chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio — set the tone with accusations that the Justice Department is favoring the Biden family while targeting his likely 2024 opponent, Trump.
“There’s one investigation protecting President Biden. There’s another one attacking President Trump,” Jordan declared. “The Justice Department’s got both sides of the equation covered.”
Garland — carefully and deliberately — defended the country’s largest law enforcement agency of more than 115,000 employees at a time when political and physical threats against agents and their families are on the rise.
“Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” the attorney general said.
“I am not the president’s lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress’ prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people.”
Questioning in the Republicans’ arsenal focused on allegations that the Justice Department interfered in the yearslong case into Hunter Biden and that the prosecutor in charge of that case did not have the full authority he needed to bring necessary charges.
Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana asked Garland whether he had talked with anyone at FBI headquarters about the Hunter Biden investigation.
The attorney general’s response began with a long pause before he said: “I don’t recollect the answer to that question,” later adding “I don’t believe that I did.”
Garland then said repeatedly that he purposely kept the details of the investigation at arms length, to keep his promise not to interfere.
