Free Republic

It’s hard to say who is the worst attorney general in American history. The candidates are many and comprise a veritable rogue’s gallery of sadists, reactionaries and incompetents. They range from A. Mitchell Palmer, mastermind of the original Red Scare that decimated the left in the wake of the First World War, to Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and William Pelham Barr, who sacrificed the rule of law in service to Donald Trump. Merrick Garland may not share the malignancies of his fellow train wrecks, but he deserves to be in the discussion. Decades from now, historians will memorialize Garland not...

Republicans roasted Attorney General Merrick Garland on social media after a video of him doing a victory lap while leaving the Department of Justice became viral. In the clip, which was posted on Friday via X, a celebratory Garland walked and thanked cheering department staffers while the outgoing AG exited out of the building. But, in response, prominent critics of Garland blasted the attorney general and his record. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) ripped Garland in a fiery X post. “Merrick Garland has left @TheJusticeDept for the FINAL TIME,” Donalds said. “His DOJ attacked political opponents. His DOJ was unprecedentedly weaponized....

The Justice Department made public Volume I of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s final report on his now-closed investigations into President-elect Donald Trump, days before he is set to be sworn into office. Attorney General Merrick Garland released the first volume, which focuses on the election case against Trump, of Smith’s report on Tuesday at midnight after back-and-forth in the federal court system. An opening letter from Smith to Garland said that it is "laughable" that Trump believes the Biden administration, or other political actors, influenced or directed his decisions as a prosecutor, stating that he was guided by the Principles...

Outgoing US Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday defended his persecution aggressive prosecution of Trump supporters who merely walked through the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Garland released a statement ahead of Congress’s certification of the 2024 election. More than 1,500 January 6ers – many nonviolent, first time offenders – have been charged by Merrick Garland’s DOJ in the last four years. Biden’s DOJ hunted down MAGA grandmothers and other non-violent offenders and threw them in the DC gulag. Merrick Garland defended his actions and told a whopper of a lie about DC Metro and Capitol police officers. “On this...

After Florida’s attorney general told the federal government in a letter last month that she was “surprised” by a move to sideline a state probe of the second suspected attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Sunshine State has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to “vindicate” its “sovereign interest” in separately investigating Ryan Routh as ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). The lawsuit, filed by AG Ashley Moody (R) in Fort Pierce but this time not assigned to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, claims that the feds are violating the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution...

Representative Thomas Massie (R-KY) and nine other members of the House Judiciary Committee signed a letter on Wednesday warning Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Dept. of Justice (DOJ) not to interfere with the release of the Inspector General’s Report on its J6 activities. The pointed letter follows testimony from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz who suggested that the FBI had confidential human sources (CHS) on the Capitol grounds on Jan 6 and that DOJ officials may be slow-walking the release of his final report until after the November election. The presence of undercover federal CHS assets at the U.S....

Rep. Thomas Massie accused Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday of lying during a House Judiciary Committee hearing about his knowledge of federal law enforcement activities during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Massie (R-Ky.) previously tangled with Garland in October 2021 over the same issue, questioning whether undercover FBI agents were present at the storming of the Capitol. At the time, Massie showed video footage of then-Arizona Oath Keepers president Ray Epps, who had urged protesters on the eve of the “Stop the Steal” rally “to go into the Capitol” — but had never been charged. The attorney general...

The speech that Attorney General Merrick Garland delivered Thursday at the Justice Department must have been intended to echo throughout the land. After thanking the DOJ’s 115,000 staff for their work to prosecute heinous crimes and hold polluters accountable, he turned to the topic, implicitly, of Donald Trump. Mr. Garland lauded the ideal of equal and impartial justice, while saying he’s seen in his tenure how DOJ employees have upheld it. “Our norms,” the AG said, “are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon. And our norms are a promise that...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland will denounce “conspiracy theories” and “dangerous falsehoods" targeting the Justice Department during a speech Thursday to employees as he forcefully pushes back against Republican claims of politicization.Garland will use a speech to U.S. attorneys gathered in Washington and other Justice Department members to vigorously defend the department's integrity and impartiality and to condemn what he describes as “outrageous” attacks that put law enforcement in harm's way. “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,...

‘I think our prosecutions have made clear what we think about people who try to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power,’ Garland said.Attorney General Merrick Garland boasted on Friday how his office has prosecuted nearly 1,500 Americans for protesting the 2020 election, warning others they may face similar lawfare should they raise any concerns about the administration of the upcoming November election. Speaking at a press briefing, Garland essentially said the Jan. 6 prosecutions should serve to remind Americans what happens if they raise questions about an election. “I think our prosecutions have made clear what we think about...

NBC anchor Chuck Todd said Sunday on “Meet the Press” that the January 6 House Select Committee issuing a criminal referral for former President Donald Trump could “add negatively to the political stew.” Todd said, “The January 6 committee is likely to issue some criminal referrals to Justice, they say. Without getting, we don’t want to prejudge that, but of the committee, what you saw and what the committee has produced, do you think they have made their case against Donald Trump?” Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “It is not their role to make a criminal case.”