'Absurd and dangerous': AG Garland blasts ' baseless, personal and dangerous' attacks in scathing op-ed

11 June 2024

Attorneys and government officials who have known U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland for many years often describe him as an "institutionalist," and they typically mean it a very favorable way.

Garland, they stress, has a major reverence for U.S. government institutions and the rule of law. Some of Garland's admirers have argued that he is such an institutionalist that even Hunter Biden — the son of the man who appointed him, President Joe Biden — doesn't get a pass from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

But many MAGA allies of former President Donald Trump, on the other hand, have attacked Garland as a biased Democrat who had it in for the former president when he appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel.

In a blistering op-ed published by the Washington Post on June 11, Garland calls out far-right conspiracy theorists who have been threatening or openly advocating violence against the DOJ and the FBI.

"Last week," the U.S. attorney general laments, "a California man was convicted of threatening to bomb an FBI field office where hundreds of agents and other employees work…. These heinous threats of violence have become routine in an environment in which the Justice Department is under attack like never before."

Garland continues, "In recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal and dangerous. These attacks come in the form of threats to defund particular department investigations — most recently, the special counsel's prosecution of the former president. They come in the form of conspiracy theories crafted and spread for the purpose of undermining public trust in the judicial process itself."

Garland argues that DOJ officials must not be "intimidated by…. attacks" that are "absurd and dangerous."

"The Justice Department will continue to uphold its obligation under the Constitution to fiercely defend the right of all Americans to peacefully express opinions, beliefs and ideas," Garland declares. "Disagreements about politics are good for our democracy. They are normal. But using conspiracy theories, falsehoods, violence and threats of violence to affect political outcomes is not normal."

Merrick Garland's full Washington Post op-ed is available at this link (subscription required).

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