Merrick Garland: Republicans clash with attorney general, accusing him of favouring Hunter Biden

WASHINGTON: House Republicans clashed with attorney general Merrick Garland on Wednesday, accusing him and the justice department of the “weaponisation” of the department’s work in favour of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter. Garland’s appearance before the House judiciary committee was the first in two years and came at an unprecedented moment in the department’s history: He’s overseeing two cases against Donald Trump, the first former president to face criminal charges, and another against the sitting president’s son. Republicans on the committee – led by Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman – set the tone with accusations that the justice department is favouring the Biden family, while targeting his opponent, Trump. “There’s one investigation protecting President Biden. There’s another one attacking President Trump,” Jordan said in his opening statement. “The Justice Department’s got both sides of the equation covered.”
Garland – carefully and deliberately – defended the country’s largest law enforcement agency. “Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate,” the attorney general said. He added, “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.” The central line of questioning in Republicans’ arsenal surrounded allegations that the justice department interfered in the yearslong case into Hunter Biden and that the prosecutor in charge of that case did not have the full authority he needed to bring the necessary charges to the younger Biden.