Leading the news: According to his prepared opening statement released Saturday night, Garland plans to tell the Senate Judiciary Committee that, if confirmed, he will fight discrimination and domestic terrorism.
- He will highlight his career as a prosecutor, most notably overseeing the investigation of national terrorist Timothy McVeigh and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people.
- In the siege of the Capitol, Garland will say that he intends to “oversee the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6, a heinous attack that sought to break a cornerstone of our democracy: the transfer peace of power to a newly elected government “.
- On the independence of the office of attorney general, Garland will say, “The president appoints the attorney general to be the attorney, not for any individual, but for the people of the United States.”
For the record: Garland, 68, is a native of Chicago and a graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, where he has worked for the District of Columbia Court of Appeals for the United States since 1997.
- He was appointed by President Obama in 2016 to succeed the late Judge Antonin Scalia.
- But then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) Prevented that, and insisted the newly elected president should replace the replacement that same year. Later, Judge Neil Gorsuch was confirmed under the Trump administration.
Note: Former Trump administration Attorney General Bill Barr was criticized throughout his term by Democrats, who accused him of political interference in criminal cases on behalf of the former president, which he strongly rejected.
- In his last press conference as Attorney General in December, Barr took the rare step of publicly contradicting Trump on several important issues, including Hunter Biden, voting machines, and Russia behind federal agency piracy.
Read Garland’s full opening statement, via DocumentCloud:
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with new details everywhere.