WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Sitting in front of some of his biggest critics, Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back against the idea by GOP lawmakers that the Justice Department is being weaponized for political purposes.
“Our job is to pursue justice without fear or favor. Our job is not to do what is politically convenient,” Garland said in his opening remarks at a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.”Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate.”
The Justice Department, under Garland, is overseeing two cases against former President Donald Trump as well as one against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
Last week, David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware appointed by Trump and tapped by Garland to be special counsel for the Hunter Biden case, indicted the president’s son on federal firearms charges. Meanwhile, special counsel Jack Smith is in charge of the Trump investigation. As attorney general, Garland retains final say on these investigations.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, led Wednesday’s hearing. For months, he has heavily criticized the Department of Justice and Garland himself, claiming they targeted Trump as well as conservatives across the country.
“There’s one investigation protecting President Biden, there’s another one attacking Trump,” Jordan said Wednesday. “The DOJ has both sides of the equation covered.”
The lawmaker characterized the indictment of Hunter Biden as “face-saving” for the department.
“Everyone knows the fix is in,” Jordan said.
Before the indictment, there was a plea deal that would have averted a criminal trial for Hunter Biden that Republicans decried as a “sweetheart deal.” That later fell apart, though.
“The president’s son, he got a sweetheart deal. And the judge was smart enough to smell a rat when she saw it,” Republican Wisconsin Rep. Tom Tiffany said.
Witnesses the committee spoke to, Jordan said, have all said the investigation into Hunter Biden was “anything but urgent” and even slow-walked.
As GOP lawmakers grilled Garland about the Trump and Hunter Biden investigations, Democrats asked him about issues they said Americans really care about, including crime, the fentanyl crisis and domestic terrorism, with many saying that their Republican counterparts’ actions and accusations are just a political stunt and a way to sow division.
One of the specific allegations from Republicans is that a statute of limitation on tax crimes Hunter Biden was accused of was allowed to expire. GOP lawmakers point the finger at Garland, but the attorney general maintains that nothing has been done improperly.
Throughout the hearing, Garland said he has not had direct involvement in the Hunter Biden investigation and that Weiss has been calling the shots from the beginning.
“I am not the president’s lawyer,” Garland said.
In a response to a question by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas on whether the Republicans’ rhetoric had a basis in reality, Garland answered that “it does not.”
During his testimony, Garland touted the work the DOJ does, including a recent U.S. Marshals operation targeting violent fugitives that resulted in 4,400 arrests across 20 cities as well as the recent extradition of El Chapo’s son, who is also a leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
He told committee members that lobbing vitriol and attacks at career prosecutors and officials has led to violence, including an attack on an FBI office “by somebody incensed by political rhetoric.”
“Singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous — particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families,” Garland said.
There were a number of tense moments Tuesday between Garland and Republican representatives. At one point, Garland was asked by Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., about a memo from a Richmond, Virginia, FBI field office that talked about “radical-traditionalist Catholics” and was later retracted. Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the memo, with Wray saying he was “aghast” when he found out about it.
“Do you agree that traditional Catholics are violent extremists — yes or no?” Van Drew asked.
Growing emotional, Garland responded by saying that “the idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous, so absurd, that it’s hard for me to answer your question.”
“Mr. Attorney General, it was your FBI that did this,” Van Drew said.
“Catholics are not extremists, no,” Garland said.
Earlier in the hearing, Garland, who is Jewish, had detailed how his family fled religious persecution in Eastern Europe at the start of the 20th century. His grandmother, as well as two of her siblings, made it to the United States, but two others were killed in the Holocaust, Garland said.
White House spokesperson Ian Sams, in a statement on the hearing, called it a “not-so-sophisticated distraction campaign” to cover up Republicans’ own actions that are “hurtling America to a dangerous and costly government shutdown.”
“Don’t be fooled: they want to distract from the reality that their own chaos and inability to govern is going to shut down the government in a matter of days, hurting our economy and national security and jeopardizing everything from troop pay to fighting fentanyl,” Sams said.
There was one Republican, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, who argued Garland was in an “impossible situation” where he would have been “criticized either way.”
“Do you know what people would have said if you had asked for U.S. Attorney Weiss’ resignation when you became attorney general?” Buck asked Garland. “They would have said that you were obstructing the Hunter Biden investigation and you were firing a Republican appointee so that you could appoint a Democrat to slow-walk this investigation.”
This hearing comes as President Joe Biden faces an impeachment inquiry.
NewsNation learned Tuesday that the first hearing for that will be held Thursday next week.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer will lead that hearing, telling NewsNation the committee plans to acquire more emails and personal records belonging to the Bidens.
He also said legal and financial experts will testify about possible violations the Biden family may have committed.
“I believe the majority of questions from our side will pertain to specific crimes we believe have been committed, as well as what the impeachment inquiry allows us to do moving forward,” Comer said.
The president’s team and Democrats continue to fire back, saying Republicans have yet to show any evidence tying Biden to a crime.
“Extreme House Republicans want to distract people from their chaotic inability to govern and its impacts on the country,” Sams posted to social media.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
This story is developing and will be updated.