Attorney General Garland testifies before GOP-led House Judiciary Committee

Criticizing the FBI search of Donald Trump’s home in Florida in August 2022, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan falsely claimed in his opening statement at Wednesday’s hearing that the former president did everything the Justice Department had asked him to do prior to the search. 

Among other acts of compliance, the Republican said, Trump immediately turned over 38 documents he discovered prior to the search, then complied with a Justice Department request to further secure the storage room where official documents were being stored.  

“Everything they asked him to do, he did. And then what’s the Justice Department do? August 8, last year, they raid President Trump’s home,” Jordan said.

Facts First: Jordan’s claim is incorrect. When the Justice Department obtained a May 2022 grand jury subpoena demanding that Trump turn over all documents with classification markings, Trump did not do so. Instead, Trump’s indictment alleges, he turned over just 38 documents with classification markings in June 2022, far fewer than he had; the August 2022 FBI search of Mar-a-Lago found 102 additional documents with classification markings. In addition, the indictment alleges that, upon producing the 38 documents, Trump intentionally had one of his lawyers sign a document that falsely certified that all the documents demanded by the subpoena had been produced.

The indictment, brought by special counsel Jack Smith, also alleges that Trump committed multiple other acts of obstruction to try to avoid complying with the May 2022 subpoena.

The indictment says that Trump directed an aide, Walt Nauta, to move boxes before Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran conducted a search for the documents in early June 2022 in response to the subpoena, “so that many boxes were not searched and many documents responsive to the May 11 Subpoena could not be found — and in fact were not found — by (Corcoran).” Smith also alleges that Trump suggested that Corcoran falsely represent to the government that Trump “did not have documents called for by the May 11 Subpoena” and that Corcoran “hide or destroy documents called for by the May 11 Subpoena.”

Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Attorney General Merrick Garland avoided directly weighing in on the Supreme Court’s ethics drama when pressed by a Democratic congressman on Justice Clarence Thomas’ decision to accept luxury trips and other gifts from a GOP megadonor. 

Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, repeatedly asked Garland, a former judge on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and one-time Supreme Court justice nominee himself, whether he had similarly accepted the kinds of gifts and trips Thomas has accepted over the years from billionaire Harlan Crow, decisions that have led to renewed calls for the high court to adopt an ethics code.

“Did you take any vacations at exclusive resorts paid for by a billionaire?” Johnson asked, tacitly referring to Thomas. Again referring to Thomas and Crow, Johnson asked: “You would never have had somebody to pay for your godson's tuition to private school, would you?”

Garland declined to address the Thomas issue directly but said he as a judge "held myself to the highest standards," noting that federal judges on the lower courts are bound by a formal code of ethics.

Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz on Wednesday pressed Attorney General Merrick Garland on claims that Hunter Biden was “selling the appearance of access” to then-Vice President Joe Biden, and whether he was still doing so through selling his art.

“Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer told us that Hunter Biden sold the appearance of access to then-Vice President Biden. Are you confident he has stopped doing that?” the Florida lawmaker asked Garland during a hearing before the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee.

“I’m going to say again that all these matters are within the purview of (special counsel David) Weiss. I have not interfered with them and I do not intend to interfere with them,” Garland replied.

CNN previously reported that Archer told the House Oversight Committee that Hunter Biden, his former business associate, was selling the “illusion” of access to his father, according to a source familiar with the closed-door interview. The source said Archer provided no evidence connecting the president to any of his son’s foreign business dealings. Hunter Biden and the White House have pushed back on the GOP allegations.

Gaetz also invoked Hunter Biden’s art sales during his questioning, saying that he’s “selling art to pay for his $15,000-a-month rent in Malibu.”

“How can you guarantee that the people buying that art aren't doing so to gain favor with the president?” he asked, adding that one person who purchased art from the younger Biden “ended up with a prestigious appointment to a federal position.”

“I’m not going to comment,” the attorney general began to say before Gaetz cut him off.

“Not gonna comment, not gonna investigate,” Gaetz said.

When asked whether statutes of limitations have expired on some alleged crimes by Hunter Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland repeatedly reiterated that he did not have a hand in the investigation and the indictment of President Joe Biden’s son.

Citing testimony from an IRS whistleblower – some of which has been disputed – Republicans have repeatedly alleged that the Justice Department dragged its feet in making a charging decision, citing a statute of limitations on the gun charge set to expire in October and similar potential issues with possible tax evasion charges, and gave special treatment to Hunter Biden because his father is president.

In a tense exchange with GOP Rep. Dan Bishop over the statute of limitations on the case, Garland said he did not “interfere with,” “investigate” or “make determinations” in the Hunter Biden case.

“See, those are statements in response to other questions,” Bishop interrupted. “Everybody in the country now knows who’s paying attention to this, that the Justice Department permitted statutes of limitations to expire. Every lawyer who’s ever practiced understands the implications of allowing statutes of limitations to expire. Do you not even know as you sit here whether it occurred or not?”

Some Democrats, for their part, have said that Hunter Biden is being treated more harshly than other individuals because he is the president’s son. 

Hunter Biden has denied wrongdoing and plans to plead not guilty to the gun charges. Weiss is still considering whether to bring tax-related charges.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has repeatedly told the House Judiciary Committee he has not interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden, under harsh questioning from Republicans.

In one exchange in today's hearing with GOP Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Garland said directly he did not “interfere with,” “investigate” or “make determinations” in the Hunter Biden case.

Garland also told committee chair Jim Jordan that he has maintained his pledge not to interfere into now-special counsel David Weiss' investigation into the president's son.

Garland was also asked about discussions Weiss testified he had with department officials about potential charges against Hunter Biden and whether those charges could be brought in districts outside of Delaware.

“I’m not going to get into the internal deliberations of the department,” Garland said, adding that conversations Weiss had were appropriate, and that he “made clear that if (Weiss) wanted to bring a case in any jurisdiction, he would be able to do that.”

Garland also said claims that the process to charge Hunter Biden in a different district were cumbersome were “not true.”

“All I have to do” is sign an order, Garland said. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that defunding the FBI would be “catastrophic” and would leave the country significantly vulnerable to global threats.

His comments came in response to calls from Republicans – including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – to defund the FBI, alleging that federal agents are improperly conducting partisan investigations.

The country would also be vulnerable to “to violent crime in the United States, which the FBI helps to fight against, to all kinds of espionage, to domestic violent extremists who have attacked our churches, our synagogues, our mosques and who have killed individuals out of racial hatred.”

“I just – I cannot imagine the consequences of defunding the FBI, but they would be catastrophic,” he said.

David Weiss, the Donald Trump-appointed US attorney who in August was named a special counsel leading the investigation into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, has been mentioned multiple times in today's House Judiciary Committee hearing.

The appointment marked another dramatic development in the long-running probe into Hunter Biden, which began in 2018 and, at one time, concerned multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Joe Biden was vice president.

Weiss, the Delaware US attorney, met in April with Biden’s attorneys, who had requested a routine status update on the investigation, and it had appeared in June that the probe was near its end with a plea agreement. Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and struck a deal with federal prosecutors to resolve a felony gun charge.

That original plea deal ultimately collapsed, and Weiss indicted Hunter Biden last week in connection with a gun he purchased in 2018, the first time in US history the Justice Department has charged the child of a sitting president.

About Weiss: He has decades of experience as a federal prosecutor. In 2018, the Senate confirmed Weiss to serve as US attorney for the District of Delaware. At the time of his nomination, he was serving as the acting US attorney for the district and was one of nine candidates whom Trump said shared his “vision for ‘Making America Safe Again.’”

Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden continued into the Biden administration, prompting Garland to stress during a March Senate committee hearing that he would not interfere with the investigation. Weiss, he reiterated at the time, had “full authority” to carry out the investigation and to bring in another jurisdiction if necessary.

Garland said Weiss was “not to be denied anything that he needs.”

The appointment of a special counsel had long been called for by Republicans who repeatedly criticized the Justice Department’s handling of the probe as being favorable to the president and his son.

However, House GOP members have questioned whether Weiss could be trusted and reiterated calls for Weiss to testify before Congress.

“This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said in a tweet. “If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel?”

Read more about special counsel Weiss.

In his opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Merrick Garland hailed the Justice Department as “tasked with confronting some of the country’s most difficult challenges."

“Today, we are handling matters of significant public interest that carry great consequences for our democracy,” Garland said.

He pointed to some of the department’s work “combatting drug cartels,” including the recent arrest and extradition of Ovidio Guzman Lopez, a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and the son of El Chapo. Garland also highlighted a U.S. Marshals operation that “targeted violent fugitives and resulted in 4,400 arrests across 20 cities in just three months.”

Garland spoke to how the Justice Department was founded – “with the first principal task of bringing to justice white supremacists and others who terrorized Black Americans to prevent them from exercising their civil rights” – and highlighted his own family story fleeing to the US from religious persecution in Eastern Europe.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in his opening statement Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee rebuked congressional Republicans who have accused the Justice Department of political bias.

"Our job is not to do what is politically convenient. Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress or from anyone else about who or what we criminally investigate," he said.

"These are appropriate and important given the matters and the gravity of the matters that are before the department, but singling out individual career public servants who are just doing their jobs is dangerous, particularly at a time of increased threats to the safety of public servants and their families. We will not be intimidated. We will do our jobs free from outside influence and we will not back down from defending our democracy," he told lawmakers.