By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, preparing to step down from his post, will urge career civil servants at the Justice Department on Thursday not to let unfair criticism prevent them from doing what is right for the country.
Democratic critics of Donald Trump have been concerned that the president-elect will undermine the independence of the judiciary when he takes office on Monday. Trump has said his administration will prosecute some of his political adversaries and has often attacked Garland and other Justice Department employees for what he says have been politically motivated legal cases brought against him.
“I know that you have faced unfounded attacks simply for doing your jobs, at the very same time you have risked your lives to protect our country from a range of foreign and domestic threats. And I know that a lot is being asked of you right now,” Garland planned to tell department employees in a farewell address on Thursday afternoon.
“But before I leave, I have one more thing I want to ask of you. That is to remember who you are, and why you came to work here in the first place.”
The address by Garland, who was appointed by outgoing President Joe Biden, comes on the second day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Pam Bondi, Trump’s nominee to be the next attorney general.
Bondi pledged on Wednesday to maintain the Justice Department’s independence and not to target people based on their politics, amid questions from Democrats who said they feared she would abuse the department’s law enforcement powers to appease Trump by seeking retribution against his political enemies.
“There will never be an enemies list within the Department of Justice,” Bondi told the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I will not politicize that office. I will not target people simply because of their political affiliation.”
However, Bondi also spoke critically of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s two prior probes against Trump and she declined to explicitly rule out whether she might launch an investigation into him.
On Thursday the Senate Judiciary Committee will hear testimony from several witnesses about Bondi’s credentials to be attorney general, including some of Bondi’s former colleagues as well as the head of a leading good-government advocacy group and a former top Justice Department official.
In his remarks Garland planned to call on Justice Department staff to keep guaranteeing the department’s independence “from both the White House and the Congress concerning law enforcement investigations and prosecutions.”
“It is the obligation of each of us to follow our norms not only when it is easy, but also when it is hard — especially when it is hard,” he planned to say. “It is the obligation of each of us to adhere to our norms even when — and especially when — the circumstances we face are not normal.”
(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Frances Kerry)
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