WASHINGTON — Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if requested by President Joe Biden to take motion in opposition to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t suppose he’ll be put in that place.
“I am sure that that will not happen, but I would not do anything in that regard,” he mentioned on CBS “60 Minutes.” “And if necessary, I would resign. But there is no sense that anything like that will happen.”
The Justice Department is on the heart of not solely indictments in opposition to Trump that embody an effort to overturn the 2020 election and wrongly retaining categorised paperwork, but additionally instances involving Biden’s son Hunter, the aftermath of the riot on the U.S. Capitol and investigations into categorised paperwork discovered within the president’s dwelling and workplace. Garland has appointed three separate particular counsels.
Garland has spoken solely sparingly in regards to the instances and reiterated Sunday he wouldn’t get into specifics, however dismissed claims by Trump and his supporters that the instances have been timed to wreck his possibilities to be president in 2024.
“Well, that’s absolutely not true. Justice Department prosecutors are nonpartisan. They don’t allow partisan considerations to play any role in their determinations,” Garland mentioned.
Garland mentioned the president has by no means tried to meddle within the investigations, and he dismissed criticism from Republicans that he was going simple on the president’s son, Hunter, who was lately indicted on a gun cost after a plea deal in his tax case fell aside. Hunter Biden is due in a Delaware court docket this week.
“We do not have one rule for Republicans and another rule for Democrats. We don’t have one rule for foes and another for friends,” he mentioned. “We have only one rule; and that one rule is that we follow the facts and the law, and we reach the decisions required by the Constitution, and we protect civil liberties.”
Garland choked up when speaking about his issues over violence, significantly as judges and prosecutors assigned to the Trump instances bought demise threats.
“People can argue with each other as much as they want and as vociferously as they want. But the one thing they may not do is use violence and threats of violence to alter the outcome,” he mentioned. “American people must protect each other. They must ensure that they treat each other with civility and kindness, listen to opposing views, argue as vociferously as they want, but refrain from violence and threats of violence. That’s the only way this democracy will survive.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”