Garland claims DOJ reaffirming its 'norms' despite series of controversies

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Garland says Justice Department won't be used as political weapon

Fox News Legal Editor Kerri Urbahn analyzes DOJ controversies.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland championed a returned to "norms" at the Department of Justice on Thursday, despite controversies that have left Republicans alleging a two-tier justice system.

Speaking to department staff in Washington, D.C., Garland referred to former President Trump's term in the White House as a "particularly difficult period for the department."

"When I came back to DOJ in 2021, after a particularly difficult period for the Department, I said that my mission as Attorney General would be to reaffirm and strengthen those norms as the principles upon which the Justice Department operates," he said. 

Garland, however, failed to mention the department failing to enforce a federal statute against the protesters who were harassing conservative justices at their homes in 2022, slow-walking the trial of the man accused of seeking to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh while fast-tracking cases involving Trump and writing a letter directing the National Security Division to monitor angry parents at school board meetings, said Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn.

Urbahn, appearing Thursday on "America Reports," criticized the DOJ for providing regular updates on the aggressive Jan. 6 riot prosecutions while staying mum on anti-Israel agitators who have defaced and destroyed private and federal property. The department also slow-walked the Hunter Biden investigation until whistleblowers spoke out, Urbahn said, and then nearly allowed a "sweetheart" plea deal to go through.

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Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

"So, we took steps to better protect the Department's criminal and civil law enforcement decisions and its legal judgments from partisan or other inappropriate influences," Garland continued.

Garland lamented accusations that the department had been weaponized against political enemies and decried "conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods [and] efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants."

"Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon, and our 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," Garland told DOJ staff.

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Garland's statements appear to be a response to accusations coming from across the Republican Party that the DOJ has been weaponized against Trump in recent years.

In June, The Washington Post published an opinion piece written by Garland, which shot down assertions that the department was attempting to influence the 2024 election. 

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Without naming them, Garland alluded to Trump and his allies, who have repeatedly claimed the DOJ was behind the New York criminal case against the presumptive GOP nominee, who was found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records by a Manhattan jury. 

"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," Garland wrote.

Such attacks, Garland insisted at the time, included "threats" to defund Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith's efforts to prosecute the former president. 

Garland added at the time, "The Justice Department makes decisions about criminal investigations based only on the facts and the law. We do not investigate people because of their last name, their political affiliation, the size of their bank account, where they come from or what they look like. We investigate and prosecute violations of federal law — nothing more, nothing less." 

"With all due respect, Attorney General, prosecuting the former president of the United States and the possible future president of the United States and your boss's political enemy is anything but normal," Urbahn said.

Urbahn said that Smith has brought "untested legal theories" against Trump.

"They are basically twisting the law in ways that have never been done before in order to fit the facts to get the guy," Urbahn continued.

Others have pointed out what appears to be hypocrisy on the DOJ's part with recent treatment of groups lumped together as politically conservative when compared to those categorized as generally liberal.

In 2023, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves announced the conviction of Paula "Paulette" Harlow, 75, of Kingston, Massachusetts, for a "federal conspiracy against rights" and Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act violations for participating in a protest at an abortion clinic in 2020.

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Critics immediately cried foul, noting that Graves had yet to condemn or preview possible prosecution efforts for roughly 200 anti-Israel activists — some armed with pepper spray — who violently rioted at the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters and injured at least six Capitol Police officers in November. 

Amid former President Trump's continued accusations of DOJ weaponization throughout his two federal criminal cases, Garland praised his department's 115,000 attorneys, agents and other workers for not bending to politics.  (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Fox News' Chris Pandolfo, Brooke Singman and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.