Attorney General Merrick Garland plans to call out “dangerous and outrageous” attacks on the Justice Department and its workforce as the nation’s U.S. attorneys gather in Washington.
The address—to be delivered department-wide—commends their “ironclad commitment to the principles of fairness and impartiality” as he describes unprecedented threats made against the Justice Department.
“The way you do that work makes clear that the public servants of the Department of Justice do not bend to politics. And that they will not break under pressure,” Garland said in excerpts of his remarks obtained by The Hill.
The speech is a continuance of a more confrontational stance from the mild-mannered Garland, who , in a June appearance before the House Judiciary Committee, came face-to-face with some of his sharpest critics. He accused them of playing a role in forwarding conspiracy theories and attacking rank-and-file employees, saying that he and the department “will not be intimidated.”
Garland, in his address, plans to once again call out “conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence.”