Attorney General Merrick Garland attempted Wednesday to shut down criticism of the Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) with an op-ed in The Washington Post. But his flat dismissal of concerns over the DOJ’s politicization as “conspiracy theories” fails to engage with the facts.
Garland’s response in the Post came the week after he testified during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that he would “not be intimidated” by attacks on the department, and ahead of a House vote holding him in contempt of Congress for declining to turn over the recording of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
Below are annotated excerpts from the op-ed, with Garland’s words in italics and the context he omitted beneath in plain text:
In recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary…
