‘I will not be intimidated’: Garland slams attacks on Justice Department

Gen. Merrick Garland forcefully rebuked Tuesday what he described as unprecedented attacks on the Justice Department, telling Republicans who have sought to hold him in contempt that he will “not be intimidated.” During a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, Garland condemned the “conspiracy theory” pushed by Donald Trump’s allies that the department was behind Trump’s state court prosecution in New York in which the former Republican president was convicted of 34 felony charges. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.” Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee chair, criticized Garland in his opening statement for a broad array of what he depicted as politically motivated decisions by federal law enforcement — including the conclusions by different special counsels that Trump criminally mishandled classified documents while Biden did not. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was investigated but not charged by the Justice Department in a sex trafficking inquiry, had a tense exchange early in the hearing when he demanded to know if the department would produce records related to the New York state case in which Trump was convicted last week. Garland disputed as false allegations by Gaetz that he had “dispatched” to the Manhattan district attorney’s office a Justice Department attorney who later became part of the Trump prosecution team, insisting that he had nothing to do with it.