WASHINGTON (CN) — Outgoing Attorney General Merrick Garland espoused the importance of an independent Justice Department in a farewell ceremony Thursday, days before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
Thursday’s event follows two days of Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee to replace Garland. Bondi vowed to “return the Justice Department to its core mission of keeping Americans safe and vigorously prosecuting criminals.”
“It is the obligation of the attorney general to make clear that the only way for the Justice Department to do the right thing is to do it the right way, that unjust means cannot achieve just ends,” Garland said in his farewell address. “The attorney general must ensure that this department seeks justice, only with justice.”
President Joe Biden nominated Garland to the nation’s top law enforcement position on Jan. 6, 2021 — a day that would dominate his tenure as he led the Justice Department’s largest-ever prosecution against rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol. The Senate confirmed him 70-30 on March 10, 2021.
Garland said he hoped career prosecutors within the department would be able to work free from outside political influence under the next administration and uphold the norms that guided the Justice Department during and before his tenure.
“Those norms include our commitment to guaranteeing the independence of the Justice Department from both the White House and the Congress concerning law-enforcement investigations and prosecutions,” Garland said. “We make that commitment, not because independence is necessarily constitutionally required, but because it is the only way to ensure that our law enforcement decisions are free from partisan influence.”
Garland’s statements were an apparent reference to concerns that a Justice Department led by Bondi would be regularly enlisted by Trump and his allies in Congress to target perceived political enemies, such as special counsel Jack Smith and other prosecutors involved in Trump’s criminal cases.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin pointedly asked Bondi whether she would be able to “tell the president ‘No’” if she were asked to do something illegal or unconstitutional. Bondi did not answer directly.
In his farewell statement, Garland applauded the Justice Department’s work in a wide range of prosecutions including the Capitol insurrection, the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as antitrust actions against giants Google and Ticketmaster.
“I am simply in awe of what the public servants of this department across the country and around the world have done over the past four years to fulfill our mission to keep our country safe, protect civil rights, and uphold the rule of law,” Garland said.
Christopher Wray, the outgoing FBI director, highlighted Garland’s long career in law enforcement, including the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombers, the “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski and the Atlanta Olympics bombings as principal associate deputy attorney general, the Justice Department’s third-ranking position.
“For the past four years, you have been a steadfast advocate for the men and women of the FBI,” Wray said. “Most importantly, you’ve defended the FBI workforce when our people have been threatened for simply doing their jobs the right thing, the right way.”
Wray announced last month that he would step down from his position atop the FBI three years before his 10-year term was set to end.
The decision paved the way for Trump to replace Wray, who he originally nominated to the position but had since soured on following the FBI’s role in the Jan. 6 prosecutions. Trump’s nominee, Kash Patel, has faced scrutiny from Democratic lawmakers despite no hearing scheduled yet.
At Bondi’s confirmation hearing, Patel’s nomination and his so-called “enemies list” from his book “Government Gangsters” became a common question from Democrats. Bondi repeatedly stated the list would not be used in any way by the Justice Department.
Before Garland became attorney general, he served at the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals between 1997 and 2021, where he served the last eight years as the chief judge of what is considered as the second most powerful court after the Supreme Court due to its jurisdiction over federal agencies.
In February 2016, former President Barack Obama tapped Garland to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, but his nomination was killed by Republican Senators like Mitch McConnell who argued the choice should be left to the next president — despite the nine months until the next election and 11 months until Inauguration Day. Garland’s nomination was left pending for the longest period in history at 293 days.
When Trump won, he nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch to fill the seat.