Biden introduces Attorney General Merrick Garland, promises DOJ independence

President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday introduced Federal Court of Appeal Judge Merrick Garland and other prominent prosecutors as key members of his new Justice Department.

Garland, whom Biden appointed attorney general, would lead a team of legal experts with extensive experience in and around the Department of Justice and significant experience in civil rights law.

But following the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Biden began his speech Thursday by reiterating who his candidates will serve.

“We must restore the honor, integrity, independence of the DOJ to this nation that has been so badly damaged,” Biden said.

“I want to be clear to those who run this department who will serve you: you will not work for me. You are not the president’s or vice president’s lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me,” he said. he adds. “It’s up to the law, to the Constitution, to the people of this nation.

Many of Biden’s candidates echoed this sentiment and called for a return to an independent and apolitical Justice Department.

Garland, whose previous appointment to the United States Supreme Court by President Barack Obama was blocked by Republicans in the Senate, spoke immediately after the president-elect.

“The essence of the rule of law is that similar cases are treated the same: that there is not one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends, another for the enemies, one rule for the powerful and another for the helpless, “he said.

“These principles – ensuring the rule of law and making real the promise of equal justice before the law – are the great principles on which the Department of Justice was founded and which it must always uphold,” Garland added.

The appointment by Biden of Garland, a political centrist, likely reflects the president-elect’s desire to isolate the department from partisanship seen under President Donald Trump, who has often pressured his attorneys general to investigate grievances personal, including false allegations of widespread electoral fraud.

The president’s claims, though without evidence, would have helped incite the violent riots and the siege of Capitol Hill the day before.

Biden’s calls for independent and indefatigable prosecutions could quickly be put to the test in a criminal tax investigation into the president-elect’s son Hunter Biden.

The younger Biden announced last month that his taxes were under investigation by the Delaware United States Attorney’s Office, a unit of the DOJ.

While both father and son have said they are confident Hunter had done nothing wrong, ethics officials will likely review the investigation in its duration and scope.

Lisa Monaco, Biden’s choice for the post of deputy attorney general and former Obama counterterrorism adviser, said restoring the ministry’s unhindered pursuit of justice was of utmost importance after the last four years.

“The soul of the Department of Justice lives in the integrity of its professional career, in the independence of its investigations and prosecutions and in the principles which it implements in managing the ideal of justice in America” , she said.

“What is most critical, I think, in the days to come is not at all a challenge, but an opportunity,” Monaco added. “For this team, and for the career professionals who make up the Department of Justice, to reaffirm its norms and traditions. Deliver justice without fear or favor.”

Biden brought in Vanita Gupta, a civil rights lawyer and former justice official, as associate attorney general. The child of Indian immigrants, Gupta told a story from her childhood when she first realized that American justice more often fails to people and communities of color.

She recalled how, at age four, she and her family were forced to leave a McDonald’s after a group of skinheads started calling them racist slurs and throwing food at her mother and grandmother .

“There are many agencies within the federal government, but in reality only one carries the name of a value. By virtue of that name, that value of justice, we know that the department carries a single charge,” he said. she declared.

“At its best, it is the keeper of a sacred promise. It is the promise of equal justice for all,” Gupta added. “But once abandoned, we degrade our democracy and sow the division we know all too well.”

Kristen Clarke, the candidate for the head of the DOJ’s civil rights division, completed the speeches. In a former role as a career attorney at the Department of Justice, Clarke dealt with cases of police misconduct, hate crimes and human trafficking.

Clarke has said the nation is at a “crossroads” and, if confirmed, it would seek to “close the door” to discrimination by enforcing civil rights laws.

“The department, and in particular the Civil Rights Division, has always held a special place in my heart. The bugle’s call for equal justice before the law is what unites us as a nation,” a- she declared.