AG Merrick Garland defends FBI amid Republican attacks: ‘I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked’

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday came to the defense of the FBI and justice department, both of which have been under scrutiny from Republicans since the FBI raid’s on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

“I will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked,” the Attorney General said in a press conference. “The men and women of the FBI and the justice department are dedicated, patriotic public servants. Every day they protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism and other threats to their safety while safe gauding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. I am honored to work alongside them.”

Several Republicans and Trump allies have criticized the FBI’s search of the former president’s Flordia home.

“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” Congressman Kevin McCarthy, a Republican from California, said on Twitter. “When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of this department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”

Former Vice President Mike Pence also took to Twitter to critique the FBI.

“After years where FBI agents were found to be acting on political motivation during our administration, the appearance of continued partisanship by the Justice Department must be addressed,” he wrote.

Republican Congressman Dan Bishop of North Carolina went on Fox news yesterday to say that the U.S.’s bureaucracy is at the “most dangerous point in the security state.”

“That bureaucracy believes that it is the ruler of the country. And we’re seeing how hostile it will get to people representing American citizens who desire to move in a different direction,” Bishop told Fox News.

Attorney General Garland also said he “personally approved” the decision to seek a search warrant into Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home and that the Department of Justice does not take these search warrants lightly.

On Monday, the FBI searched the former president’s home, Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, for classified presidential records that Trump had allegedly removed from the White House when he left office in January 2021. For months Trump has delayed returning the 15 boxes of classified documents to the National Archives, according to a report from the New York Times. FBI agents seized 15 boxes of the records from Trump’s home, according to Christina Bobb, the former president’s lawyer.

Bobb said that the FBI left her a copy of the search warrant which stated that they were investigating potential violations of the Presidential Records Act, which requires presidents to store all records of information relevant to their presidency and submit said records to the National Archives and Record Administration a the end of their term.

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