CAPITOL HILL – With one former president charged with multiple federal crimes, the current president’s son under indictment, and that same president facing a House impeachment inquiry, the U.S. Attorney General faced a lot of tough questions on Capitol Hill Wednesday.
Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time in nearly two years. The GOP-led committee didn’t waste their opportunity to question Garland about claims of bias at the Department of Justice.
Republican lawmakers questioned Garland’s pledge to remain above politics.
He testified, “Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what the criminally investigate. As the president himself has said. And I reaffirm today I am not the president’s lawyer.”
Garland was pepped relentlessly about his department’s handling of probes and prosecutions of former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on felony gun charges.
That investigation is being led by Special Counsel David Weiss. But Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) argued Weiss was chosen by Garland in order to defend the Bidens. “He picks the one guy, the one guy he knows will protect Joe Biden,” Jordan said.
Democrats on the committee defended the DOJ, noting several times that Weiss was nominated by Trump.
The president’s son was eventually indicted last week on three felony federal gun charges, accused of lying about his drug abuse to purchase a handgun in 2018 and then possessing that gun illegally.
READ: Critics Warn of Smokescreen After Hunter Biden Indicted in Only Case Where Joe Biden Wasn’t Involved
Jordan said, “He could have picked anyone inside government, outside the government. He could have picked former attorney generals, former special counsel. But he picks the one guy, the one guy he knows will protect Joe Biden.”
Republicans probed further into the alleged preferential treatment of President Biden’s son Hunter.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) said, “They’re witnessing every day a politicized Justice Department in a two-tiered system of justice. For example, they see the DOJ, of course, aggressively prosecuting President Biden’s chief political rival, Mr. Trump, while at the same time, they see slow walking and special treatment given to the president’s son.”
This month a recent Associated Press-NORC Center poll found just 19% of Americans are very or extremely confident that the Justice Department is handling its investigation in a fair and nonpartisan way. Half say they are not too confident or not at all confident.
Regent University’s Robertson School of Government Dean Michele Bachmann said, “The FBI decides who they want to prosecute and who they don’t want to prosecute. So they’re eager to prosecute those who have political opposition to the current administration. They seem highly reluctant to prosecute anyone who’s associated with the current administration. That is a denial of justice.”
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