In a farewell speech to Justice Department staffers, outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday appeared to rebuke attacks from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies who have “wrongly criticized” the department as politically motivated.
“The story that has been told by some outside of this building about what has happened inside of it is wrong. You have worked to pursue justice, not politics. That is the truth and nothing can change it,” Garland said.
The outgoing attorney general also emphasized the importance of the independence of his agency, amid fear from some Senate Democrats this week that Trump’s pick to lead the department, Pam Bondi, will take marching orders from the next president.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the justice system as politicized and corrupt, taking aim especially at the prosecutors, Department of Justice officials and the judges presiding over criminal cases against him.
The norms of the Justice Department, Garland said Thursday, “include our commitment to guaranteeing the independence of the Justice Department from both the White House and the Congress concerning law enforcement investigations and prosecutions.”
He added, “We make that commitment not because independence is necessarily constitutionally required, but because it is the only way to ensure that our law enforcement decisions are free from partisan influence.”
As is typical for him, Garland grew emotional at times during the standing-room-only speech, and several people in the audience did as well.
Garland’s remarks came a day after senators questioned Pam Bondi, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next attorney general, on whether she could maintain a Justice Department independent from the White House. Noting that Trump had fired both of the attorneys general he appointed during his first administration, Democrats pressed Bondi by asking if her client would be the American people — or Trump.
Republican and Democratic senators also sparred over what they labeled as the “weaponization” of the Justice Department, with Democrats asking whether Trump and Bondi would prosecute the president-elect’s political enemies and Republicans slamming President Joe Biden and Garland as already having weaponized the department.
In response to questions from Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., Bondi said: “No one will be prosecuted, investigated because they are a political opponent. That’s what we’ve seen for the last four years in this administration.”
Garland in his speech appeared to nod at these types of criticisms, which Trump and his allies have repeated over the years. President Joe Biden, in his statement pardoning his son, also alleged that the federal prosecution against Hunter Biden was “infected” by “raw politics.”
“I know that, over the years, some have wrongly criticized you, saying that you have allowed politics to influence your decision-making,” Garland told DOJ staffers. “That criticism often came from people with political views opposite from one another, each making the exact opposite points about the same set of facts.”
Garland also nodded to the threats that public servants have faced in recent years. Law enforcement officers, for example, saw a spike in threats following the FBI search of Trump’s Florida home.
“I know that you have faced unfounded attacks simply for doing your jobs, at the very same time you have risked your lives to protect our country from a range of foreign and domestic threats,” Garland said.
He also encouraged future attorneys general to respect the roles of career officers in the department.
Justice Department norms, Garland said, call for political appointees to “ensure respect for the integrity of our career agents, lawyers and staff, who are the institutional backbone and historical memory of this Department.”
Those norms also include “a promise to ensure protections for journalists in law enforcement investigations, because a free press is essential to our democracy.”
“It is the obligation of the Attorney General to make clear that the only way for the Justice Department to do the right thing is to do it the right way. That unjust means cannot achieve just ends,” Garland said.
Ahead of Garland’s speech, he was lauded by outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee who said he would resign before Trump’s inauguration. Trump has said he intends to nominate Kash Patel, a loyalist with a history of espousing conspiracy theories, to be the next FBI director.
“It’s not a doubt in my mind the American people are safer and better because of your time in public service,” Wray told Garland.
“Last September, you addressed the entire Justice Department and told us something that you said we don’t hear enough — you thanked all of us for all we do to uphold one rule of law for all Americans and today, I’m honored to say the same thing to you,” he added.
Others who spoke in thanks ahead of Garland’s speech included Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar and former Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta.
And in a video collage, multiple other officials — including Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator Anne Milgram, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Director Steven M. Dettelbach, National Fraternal Order of Police Executive Director Jim Pasco, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Colette S. Peters and multiple assistant attorneys general — gave thanks to Garland.
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