The Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Merrick Garland as U.S. Attorney General, handing the reins of the Justice Department over to a longtime federal judge who’s pledged to de-politicize the agency.
He was confirmed by a vote of 70 to 30. Among the Republicans who voted in Garland’s favor were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Republicans who voted against Garland included two likely 2024 presidential candidates, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas.
“America can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re finally going to have someone like Merrick Garland leading the Justice Department. Someone with integrity, independence, respect for the rule of law and credibility on both sides of the aisle. He understands that the job of the attorney general is one to protect rule of law, unlike the previous attorneys general under President Trump,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said before the vote.
The bipartisan vote came almost five years to the day Garland was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by then-President Barack Obama following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. The McConnell-led Republican-controlled Senate refused to even consider his nomination and the seat was eventually filled by Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Donald Trump.
Garland, 68, has been a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia since 1997 and was its chief judge from 2013 to 2020. He is a veteran of the Justice Department, where he supervised domestic terrorism cases, including prosecutions stemming from the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.
At his confirmation hearing last month, Garland said one of his most pressing tasks would be to “supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”
Garland said he would not rule out investigating those who funded, organized, led and aided the attack on the Capitol.
“We begin with the people on the ground, and we work our way up to those who are involved and further involved, and we will pursue these leads wherever they take us,” he said.
He also stressed that he would protect the Justice Department from political interference from the White House. Trump attorney general William Barr was frequently accused by federal judges and others of putting Trump’s interests ahead of the department’s.
Garland has some politically charged cases awaiting him, including John Durham’s special counsel investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia inquiry and a tax investigation involving Biden’s son Hunter.
Garland said at his confirmation hearing that he had not discussed the Hunter Biden case with the president and that Biden has made “abundantly clear” that decisions about investigations and prosecutions will be left to the Justice Department.
When his nomination was announced in January, Garland said he would strive to make sure that “like cases are treated alike, that there not be one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, one rule for friends, the other for foes.”
Frank Thorp V contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
