Merrick Garland vows Justice Department won’t be used as a ‘political weapon’ as Trump’s threats fuel harassment

Attorney general rebukes ‘dangerous’ escalation of conspiracy theory-driven attacks

Attorney General Merrick Garland told staff at the Department of Justice that the agency will not be used as a “political weapon” as Donald Trump campaigns on a message of political persecution with barely veiled threats to turn the government into a tool of retribution.

In an at-times emotional speech to Justice Department staff on Thursday, Garland defended a “promise that we will not allow this Department to be used as a political weapon,” and that the agency’s norms are “a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics.”

The Justice Department’s public servants “do not bend to politics” and “will fiercely protect the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations,” Garland said.

His remarks follow attacks from the Republican presidential candidate and his allies who have accused Garland and President Joe Biden of “weaponizing” the Justice Department to criminally prosecute him in two cases under special counsel Jack Smith.

Attorney General Merrick Garland told staff on September 12 that the agency will not be used as a ‘political weapon’ (EPA)

Trump was criminally charged for his efforts to reverse his election loss in 2020, and for allegedly withholding reams of classified documents after leaving office, then obstructing efforts to get them back.

But another special counsel, Robert Hur, has separately investigated Biden for his own withholding of classified documents from his time as vice president, though Hur ultimately decided against charging the president

His son Hunter Biden, however, pleaded guilty last week to tax fraud charges brought by a third special counsel, David Weiss.

The Justice Department’s investigation into Democratic Senator Bob Menendez also yielded guilty verdicts for corruption and bribery.

Yet, Trump continues to baselessly insist that the department is singling him out, and that the multiple criminal investigations and lawsuits against him are the product of a Biden-directed scheme to derail his election chances.

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social and X accounts on Saturday, Trump threatened “long term prison sentences” for “Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials” he accused of “cheating” in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

Trump’s campaign called Garland’s latest remarks “disgraceful.”

Garland has “done tremendous damage to a once great institution,” according to Trump’s communications director Steven Cheung.

“Using phony charges to interfere with the presidential election on behalf of the Democrat Party has to be stopped and those driving these Hoaxes have to be held accountable,” he said.

Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting a case against Donald Trump for his allegedly criminal attempts to subvert his 2020 election loss (AFP via Getty Images)

In his remarks on Thursday, Garland rebuked the “dangerous” escalation of conspiracy theory-driven attacks against the agency and its staff.

“Over the past three and a half years, there has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department’s career lawyers, agents, and other personnel that go far beyond scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work,” he said.

“These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence,” he added.

“It is dangerous and outrageous that you have to endure them,” he said.

Less than two months before Election Day, Garland stressed that “federal prosecutors and agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution for the purpose of affecting any election or the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.”

Trump’s attacks and attempts to undermine confidence in elections have appeared to fuel threats to poll workers and election officials at the local level, far from the work of federal prosecutors.

More than a third of local election officials have reported threats, harassment or abuse due to their jobs, according to a 2024 survey from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law.

Since 2020, the Justice Department has recorded an “unprecedented spike in threats against the public servants who do administer our elections,” Garland said earlier this month.

“In a democracy, people vote and argue and debate — often loudly — in order to achieve the policy outcomes they desire,” he said in remarks before a meeting with the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force on September 4.

“And the Justice Department will continue to relentlessly protect the rights of all Americans to peacefully express their opinions, beliefs, and ideas,” he added. “But the promise of our democracy is that people will not employ violence to achieve their preferred outcomes.”