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By Natalie Venegas
Weekend Reporter
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Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday pushed back on attacks on Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In an opinion column titled "Unfounded attacks on the Justice Department must end" published by the Washington Post on Tuesday, Garland discussed the ongoing attacks against the department including threats, conspiracy theories and falsehoods, adding that recently it has involved Smith as he has led investigations into Donald Trump.
Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Justice and Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
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"In recent weeks, we have seen an escalation of attacks that go far beyond public scrutiny, criticism, and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work. They are baseless, personal and dangerous. These attacks come in the form of threats to defund particular department investigations, most recently the special counsel's prosecution of the former president," Garland wrote.
Garland continued by noting a specific example following Trump's guilty verdict in the criminal hush money case, which was brought forward by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
A New York jury last month found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records relating to a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels by Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen shortly before the 2016 presidential election. Trump has maintained his innocence and says the case is politically motivated and has since made claims that the DOJ has had a hand in the case.
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"They come in the form of conspiracy theories crafted and spread for the purpose of undermining public trust in the judicial process itself. Those include false claims that a case brought by a local district attorney and resolved by a jury verdict in a state trial was somehow controlled by the Justice Department," Garland added.
Amid the case, the former president has often heavily scrutinized the DOJ as he claimed President Joe Biden had a hand in the case.
"They are in total conjunction with the White House and the DOJ," Trump said of the court. "Just so you understand, this is all done by Biden and his people."
There is no evidence to support Biden or the DOJ had a hand in the criminal hush money case against Trump. The hush money case was filed by local prosecutors in Manhattan who don't work for the Justice Department or any White House office.
Garland's comments come after Smith led the DOJ investigation against Trump's election interference case. In August, the former president was indicted on four counts, accused of attempting to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss to Biden in the run-up to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has pleaded not guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
The former president has also pleaded not guilty to Smith's 40 charges where it's alleged that he retained classified materials after he left the White House in January 2021 and then obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them from his Mar-a-Lago resort residence in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump has maintained his innocence in the case.
Meanwhile, Garland's comments come as House Republicans plan to move ahead with a full chamber vote this week on holding Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over audio of President Joe Biden's interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur on his handling of classified documents.
In February, Hur's report on the Obama-era classified documents found at Biden's Delaware home and at his Penn Biden Center office in Washington, D.C., between November 2022 and January 2023 was released. Hur declined to prosecute Biden for mishandling the classified documents.
However, House Republicans have continued to argue audiotapes of the interview are necessary to their investigation into the president, despite the DOJ making a transcript of Hur's interview with Biden available to the GOP-led committees.
"The purpose of getting the audiotapes of the Biden interview is because the committees have to do their legislation work. They use the audio to evaluate the work and the accuracy of the special counsel. We have the transcript; there should be no surprises here," House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference last month.
Meanwhile, Garland has maintained his stance to not turn over the audiotapes, adding he "will not be intimidated."
"I will not be intimidated. And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy," Garland said at the Judiciary Committee last week.
The Rules Committee is expected to meet on Tuesday in an effort to mark up the contempt resolution. If it passes, the resolution then heads to the full House for a vote.
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