WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland rebuked Republicans Tuesday for what he described as unprecedented attacks on the Justice Department, telling lawmakers who have sought to hold him in contempt that he will ''not be intimidated.''
Appearing before a House panel led by allies of Donald Trump, Garland condemned as a ''conspiracy theory'' the claim that the department was behind the New York state court prosecution that led to the former Republican president's conviction last week on 34 felony charges. And Garland slammed other ''baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods" being spread about law enforcement.
His unusually fiery testimony amounted to a forceful defense of the independence and integrity of the Justice Department at an unprecedented moment in which it is prosecuting both Trump and President Joe Biden's son. Amid an onslaught by Trump and his Republican allies, Garland said his agency will not be deterred in its commitment to uphold the rule of law.
Garland described a Republican effort to hold him in contempt as the latest in ''a long line of attacks" on the Justice Department." Those attacks ''have not, and they will not'' influence the department's decision making, Garland told lawmakers.
''I will not be intimidated,'' Garland said. ''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.''
Republicans used the House Judiciary Committee hearing to push the claim that Biden has weaponized the department to go after Trump, even as the Democratic president's son Hunter stands trial on federal firearms charges in Delaware. Trump — who is charged in two criminal cases brought by the Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith — has cast himself as the victim of a politically motivated legal system as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee vies to reclaim the White House in November.
Since his conviction in the New York trial last week, Trump and his supporters have escalated their attacks on the criminal justice system, slamming prosecutors, the judge and the jury. Trump and his allies have suggested the case brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a state-level prosecutor, was orchestrated by Biden.
Garland described that unsupported assertion as an "attack on the judicial process itself."