Garland: DOJ ‘will apply the facts and the law’ when considering Bannon referral

By Tierney Sneed, CNN

Attorney General Merrick Garland told lawmakers that the Justice Department “will apply the facts and the law and make a decision” when considering a criminal contempt referral for Steve Bannon the House is preparing to approve on Thursday.

Garland is appearing before the House Judiciary Committee Thursday as the full House prepares to vote on a criminal contempt resolution for Bannon. The move will put before the department a decision on whether to prosecute the adviser to former President Donald Trump for his refusal to cooperate in the House’s January 6 insurrection investigation.

“The Department of Justice will do what it always does in such circumstances, we’ll apply the facts and the law and make a decision, consistent with the principles of prosecution,” Garland said, when asked about referrals approved by the House related to its January 6 probe.

In addition to the Bannon contempt referral, lawmakers may seek to question Garland about the department’s broader response to the Capitol attack, as it has charged more than 600 people who allegedly participated in the mob.

An opening statement submitted by Garland for the hearing called the Capitol breach an “intolerable assault, not only on the Capitol and the brave law enforcement personnel who sought to protect it, but also on a fundamental element of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.”

“I have great confidence in the prosecutors who are undertaking these cases. They are doing exactly what they are expected to do: make careful determinations about the facts and the applicable law in each individual case,” the statement reads.

In his opening remarks to the committee, Garland emphasized the department’s need to adhere “independence from improper influence” as he touted the steps the department has taken under his tenure.

Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler commended the department “for doing the important work of bringing those responsible for the violence of January 6 to justice.”

“I ask only that you continue to follow the facts and the law where they lead — because although you have rightly brought hundreds of charges against those who physically trespassed in the Capitol, the evidence suggests that you will soon have some hard decisions to make about those who organized and incited the attack in the first place,” the New York Democrat said.

In addition to the department’s work on the January 6 prosecutions, committee’s Democrats are also supportive of the DOJ’s decision to bring a lawsuit challenging Texas’ six-week abortion ban, as well as its moves on police reform and hate crimes. But Garland has not entirely escaped Democratic skepticism. Earlier this year, the committee’s majority questioned the department’s move to keep alive a Trump-era effort to shield the former president from a defamation lawsuit.

As both the congressional and Justice Department investigations into the Capitol breach roll along, Republicans have sought to focus attention on DOJ’s handling of antifa-related violence, which some GOP lawmakers have equated to the attack on Congress’s election certification vote. They’ve also critiqued legal guidance put out by the department related to restrictive state election rules.

Garland’s prepared opening statement lays out the work the department has done “reinvigorating civil rights enforcement” as he highlights the department’s focus on voting rights in particular — a subject that could cause a clash with the committee’s Republicans who have defended restrictive election laws that have been passed recently by states.

“We are scrutinizing new laws that seek to curb voter access, and where we see violations, we will not hesitate to act,” Garland’s prepared opening statement says. “We are also scrutinizing current laws and practices to determine whether they discriminate against Black voters and other voters of color.”

Garland, a former appellate judge, has in the past pledged his commitment to keep partisanship out of the department’s decisions.

“I have grown pretty immune to any kind of pressure, other than the pressure to do what I think is the right thing, given the facts and the law,” Garland said during his February Senate confirmation hearing. “That is what I intend to do as the attorney general, I don’t care who pressures me in whatever direction.”

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