WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland pushed back on Republican attacks on the justice system during a grueling House committee hearing on Tuesday after presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felonies for plotting to interfere in the election of 2016 by concealing hush money payments. to a porn star.
Garland, who Republicans want to hold in contempt unless he turns over audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, said he would not be intimidated by contempt threats and called the attacks on the Justice Department by some politicians “unprecedented ‘. and ‘unfounded’.
Garland noted that despite conspiracy theories spread by some members of the Republican Party, the Justice Department had no control over the actions of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the hush money case against Trump.
The conspiracy theory that the jury’s verdict was “somehow controlled by the Justice Department” is “an attack on the judicial process itself,” Garland said.
Garland said that “individual career agents and prosecutors were singled out simply because they were doing their jobs,” and that “baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods” had been spread about the FBI’s law enforcement operations, as well as “heinous threats of violence.” among the career officials of the Ministry of Justice.”
Last month, Trump and his allies spread a conspiracy theory that Biden had enlisted the FBI to kill Trump during the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in connection with the subsequent classified documents case, in which Trump has pleaded not guilty.
In reality, the FBI chose a date to search Mar-a-Lago when they knew the former president was hundreds of miles away. Following the search, a participant showed up at an FBI field office in Cincinnati on January 6 with an AK-15 style rifle and was subsequently killed by police.
In the wake of Trump’s conviction, countless individuals — including the prosecutor, judge, witnesses and even alleged jurors — have been targeted online. Trump has suggested there could be a “breaking point” for the public if he is sentenced to house arrest or prison on July 11.
“We will not shy away from defending democracy,” Garland said during his testimony Tuesday.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
