US attorney general to tell House Republicans: 'I am not Congress's prosecutor'

[September 20, 2023]  By Sarah N. Lynch

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to tell a Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives committee on Wednesday that he runs a nonpolitical department that does not do the bidding of the president or lawmakers.

Excerpts of his prepared remarks seen ahead of Wednesday's hearing showed that Garland is ready to push back against lawmakers who have criticized the Justice Department for its handling of the indictments of Republican Donald Trump and Democratic President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

"Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate," Garland is planning to tell a House Judiciary Committee hearing due to begin at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). "I am not the president’s lawyer. I will also add that I am not Congress’s prosecutor. The Justice Department works for the American people."

This will be Garland's first testimony before Congress since two historic firsts: the department's criminal charges against a former U.S. president, Trump, and against a sitting president's adult child.

It also comes a week after the Republican-led House launched an impeachment inquiry into the elder Biden, related to Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings. The White House has dismissed that probe as politically motivated and unsubstantiated.
 

Special Counsel Jack Smith, appointed by Garland last autumn, has twice secured indictments of Trump over his alleged mishandling of classified records and for his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, has pleaded not guilty to those charges and two other criminal indictments he faces in New York and Georgia.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announces the appointment of Special Counsel David Weiss in the ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden, during a brief statement at the Justice Department in Washington, U.S., August 11, 2023. REUTERS/Bonnie Cash/File Photo

Trump has repeatedly verbally attacked Smith, potential witnesses and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the election subversion case, saying that the prosecutions he faces are politically motivated.

Republicans have also been critical of the department's handling of a five-year-long tax investigation into Hunter Biden, 53.

The younger Biden was set in July to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts and agree to enroll in a program to avert a gun charge as part of a deal with then-Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.

The deal collapsed after a federal judge questioned its terms. Amid mounting Republican criticism, Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel so that he could continue to investigate and possibly pursue tax charges in other federal districts.

Weiss' office this month charged Hunter Biden with three counts related to purchase and possession of a firearm while he was using illegal drugs. Hunter Biden intends to plead not guilty.

Garland on Wednesday plans to defend the department's career prosecutors who at times have faced threats for doing their jobs.

"Singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous," Garland plans to say. "We will not be intimidated."

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

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