By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland will target Donald Trump’s Republican allies in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, accusing them of spreading false stories that endanger law enforcement and the integrity of undermine the Justice Department.
“I will not be intimidated,” Garland told lawmakers before the House Judiciary Committee, according to excerpts from his prepared testimony. “And the Department of Justice will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our work, free from political influence. And we will not shy away from defending our democracy.”
Tuesday will mark Garland’s first appearance before Congress since Trump was convicted by a New York City jury on 34 counts of falsifying documents to cover up a payment to silence an adult film star prior to the 2016 elections.
Trump still faces three other looming criminal cases — two brought by special counsel Jack Smith over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his mishandling of classified documents — and a state case in Georgia also related to his actions in the 2020 elections.
Republicans have alleged that all four cases are politically motivated and represent an attempt by Trump’s rival President Joe Biden to interfere in the 2024 election on Nov. 5.
They have threatened to drop Smith’s two investigations into the former Republican president.
The House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have also sought to advance contempt proceedings against Garland after he refused to provide audio recordings of Biden’s interview with a second special counsel investigating Biden’s retention of classified documents and declined to press charges.
Garland will reject Republicans’ demands for the audio on Tuesday, saying their request serves “no legitimate purpose” and is the latest in a series of baseless attacks.
“It has been accompanied by threats to obstruct investigations by certain departments, most recently the prosecution of the former president by the special counsel,” Garland will testify. “It comes in addition to false claims that a jury verdict in a state lawsuit filed by a local prosecutor was somehow controlled by the Department of Justice. That conspiracy theory is an attack on the legal process itself.”
Garland also plans Tuesday to defend law enforcement against baseless attacks after Trump falsely claimed the FBI was “authorized to shoot me” and was “locked and loaded” when it executed a search warrant at his Florida estate in the in the context of the investigation into secret documents.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon declined to impose a gag order banning Trump from making inflammatory comments that could endanger FBI agents, some of whom will be witnesses at the trial.
Smith has since renewed his request and Trump’s legal team has until June 14 to respond.
Without mentioning Trump by name, Garland will complain in his prepared testimony about the “baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods” being spread about the FBI’s law enforcement operations, as well as the “heinous threats of violence against career Justice Department officials.” ‘
“These repeated attacks on the Department of Justice are unprecedented and unwarranted,” he said. “These attacks have not and will not affect our decision-making.”
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
