Merrick Garland: Biden’s choice for attorney general indicates stark contrast to Trump on Justice Department

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The claim in February 2020, as Trump rejoiced in his Senate acquittal of the US House impeachment charges and prepared to fire those who had testified against him, offered only one episode of its enduring contempt for the standards of justice.

Such transgressions, to be sure, have been overshadowed this week by the rampant violence it has sparked on Capitol Hill. Yet Thursday’s televised picture by President-elect Joe Biden featuring Judge Merrick Garland as the next attorney general offered a stark contrast to Trump’s manner and demonstrated that a restorative program had begun.

“You won’t work for me,” Biden said. “You are not the president’s or vice-president’s lawyer. Your loyalty is not to me. It is to the law, the Constitution.”

For his part, Garland spoke of the destruction of the pro-Trump crowd during the electoral college vote count and said: “The rule of law is not just a lawyer’s turn of phrase. It is the very foundation of our democracy.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 and one for enemies. “

As Garland, 68, spoke of aspirations for integrity and neutrality to disprove the Trump model, his voice was filled with emotion. The last time he was so visible on the national stage was in March 2016, when President Barack Obama appointed him to a Supreme Court seat that opened after the sudden death of Judge Antonin Scalia . The Republican-controlled Senate blocked action on the appointment of Garland, a U.S. appeals judge since 1997, and ultimately reserved the seat for Trump.

Since taking office four years ago, Trump has sought to use the law to punish opponents and reward friends. He mocked the justice system at every turn, mocked the judges, and basically declared that the law was what it claimed to be. This continued with last month’s round of pardons for his political allies – and his intention to forgive himself.

But Trump’s false claims and attacks on democratic values ​​were just the prelude to his current lie that he was re-elected in November. He urged thousands of his supporters to descend on Washington this week.

Trump questions his aides and lawyers about the power of self-forgiveness

Biden spoke of Trump’s contempt for democracy and the importance of a neutral Justice Department. He and Garland cited post-Watergate reforms of the 1970s intended to restore confidence in the Department of Justice and prevent a president from interfering in daily inquiries.

Trump had publicly harassed his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, calling him “weak” and “struggling.” Trump called the US justice system a “laughing stock”. He kept the pressure on his second attorney general, William Barr, who took office in February 2019 and resigned last month.

Trump’s February 2020 remark about being ‘the head of law enforcement’ came to the fore as he sought a light sentence for his friend and political strategist Roger Stone, convicted of lying under oath to Congress and threatening a witness. (Trump pardoned Stone last month.)

Trump has consistently tried to interfere in the affairs of the Department of Justice, the FBI, and U.S. lawyers, as well as Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Watergate spectrum

Over the past four years, critics of Trump have likened his actions to Watergate and President Richard Nixon’s control over the Justice Department. Nixon resigned in 1974 after trying to cover up his role in the 1972 robbery at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building.

But Trump’s attitude has been more systemic than episodic. Rather than defending American democracy, he presented himself as an autocrat desiring absolute power.

Trump praised, then laughed at Barr. A look at the tumultuous tenure of the Attorney General.

Still, post-Watergate reforms at the Justice Department were on hold as Garland said Thursday his “mission will be to reaffirm” those guarantees.

He noted that he first worked at the ministry in 1979 as deputy attorney general Benjamin Civiletti. He later became a federal prosecutor and, in the Clinton administration, was a senior official in the Department of Justice.

Garland spoke on Thursday of Biden’s promise that he would have the “independent ability” to decide who is prosecuted, based on the facts and the law.

Said Garland, “I wouldn’t have agreed to be considered an attorney general under any other conditions.”

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