Attorney General Merrick Garland will appear before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning to respond to allegations that the FBI planned to assassinate former President Trump during a search at Mar-a-Lago, as well as suggestions that the Department of Justice was involved in the New York silence. Money case against the former president.
Garland will also reject the committee's efforts to find him guilty of contempt, a measure that passed the committee but has not yet moved to the House floor.
“Certain members of this Committee and the Oversight Committee seek contempt as a means to obtain, for no legitimate purpose, confidential police information that could harm the integrity of future investigations,” Garland plans to say in his testimony.
A DOJ spokesperson said in a statement that the attorney general “will lead the important work the Department has accomplished during his tenure, including decreasing homicide rates, prosecuting hate crimes, and combating international terrorism, but will also vigorously reject false accusations.” narratives about Department employees and their work.”
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Attorney General Merrick Garland will reject efforts to hold him in contempt. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Last month, Trump made false claims that Biden's Justice Department authorized the FBI to kill him during the 2022 search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, referring to an open FBI document about the search. . Trump was not home when the FBI carried out the search.
“WOW! I just left Biden's Manhattan witch hunt trial, the 'Icebox,' and was shown reports that Joe Biden's corrupt Justice Department, in its illegal and unconstitutional raid on Mar-a-Lago , AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE (LETAL) FORCE,” Trump wrote in Truth Social.
Trump's legal team also filed a court filing citing the Justice Department's authorization of the use of force.
But the use of force that Trump's team cited in the court filing is standard language used by the Justice Department for years, and the same language was used when FBI agents searched President Biden's home for classified documents. .
Garland will say in his testimony that the attempt to hold him in contempt “occurs as baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods are being spread about FBI law enforcement operations.”
Special counsel Jack Smith said Trump's team omitted the key word “only” in the late May filing that led to Trump's accusations that the FBI was prepared to kill him.
“Although Trump included the court order and the Operations Form as exhibits to his motion, the motion misquoted the Operations Form by omitting the crucial word 'only' before 'when necessary,' without any ellipsis reflecting the omission.” Smith wrote. “The motion also omitted language explaining that deadly force is necessary only 'when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or another person.'” .
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Former President Donald Trump arrives at Trump Tower on Thursday, May 30, 2024, after being found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. (Felipe Ramales for Fox News Digital)
Trump's team had until June 14 to respond to a move by Smith to issue a gag order prohibiting Trump from making statements about the FBI.
Smith and Garland said Trump's statements put law enforcement in danger.
Garland will also testify against Republican claims that the Justice Department had any involvement in the hush money case against Trump in New York, where the former president was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The New York case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, not the Justice Department. It is a state case, meaning Trump could not pardon himself if he wins the presidential election.
The move to hold Garland in contempt “is accompanied by false claims that a jury's verdict in a state trial, presented by a local district attorney, was somehow controlled by the Department of Justice,” Garland will say in his testimony. “That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself.”
Garland will say the move “is just the latest in a long series of attacks on the work of the Department of Justice.”
“It comes along with threats to defund certain Department investigations, most recently the special counsel's prosecution of the former president,” Garland says.
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Trump made false claims that the Justice Department authorized the FBI to kill him during the 2022 search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. (Getty Images)
He said this also comes as individual career agents and prosecutors “have been singled out just for doing their jobs” and at a time “when we are seeing egregious threats of violence directed at career public servants at the Department of Justice.”
Garland says these “repeated attacks” on the Justice Department are “unprecedented and unfounded” and that the attacks will not influence the department's decision-making.
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“I see contempt as a serious matter,” Garland says. “But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”
“I will not be intimidated,” he adds. “And the Department of Justice will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our work free of political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”
