Attorney General Merrick Garland bid farewell to the Justice Department Thursday with an unmistakable call to its career staff to resist any efforts by the incoming Trump administration to turn the department into a political weapon.
“It is the obligation of each of us to follow our norms, not only when it is easy, but also when it is hard, especially when it is hard,” Garland told hundreds of current and former DOJ staffers gathered in the Great Hall at DOJ. “It is the obligation of each of us to adhere to our norms, even when and especially when the circumstances we face are not normal.”
Garland grew emotional at times during his 15-minute speech. He recounted the work prosecutors, FBI agents and others have done in the time since he left his lifetime post on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals and took the far more politically-charged job as attorney general.
Though he made no explicit reference to the looming change in administration or to president-elect Donald Trump, Garland paid tribute to those who worked on prosecuting participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. And he alluded to the now-abandoned criminal case in which the former president was accused of spurring the attack as part of a broad conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
“You charged more than 1,500 people for criminal conduct that occurred during the January 6 attack on the Capitol, as well as in the days and weeks leading up to that attack, you brought to justice those who kicked, punched, beat and tased law enforcement officers who were protecting the capitol that day, and you pursued accountability for that attack on our democracy wherever it led, guided only by your commitment to following the facts and the law,” Garland said.
Among those who praised Garland’s tenure Thursday was outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Your leadership and your values have never wavered,” Wray said, presenting Garland with the kind of Tommy gun once used by agents.
The attorney general’s parting appearance came after two days of Senate confirmation hearings for his likely successor, Pam Bondi. During those sessions, Republican senators and Bondi herself painted the Justice Department under Garland as awash in political influence and bias, saying DOJ engaged in a fundamentally political effort to derail Trump’s 2024 presidential bid — all while violent crime raged in the streets.
It was a starkly different picture than the one painted by Garland and his deputies, who insisted their work had been both noble and impactful.
“The story that has been told by some outside of this building about what has happened inside of it is wrong. You have worked to pursue justice, not politics,” Garland said. “That is the truth, and nothing can change it. I know that a lot is being asked of you right now. All I ask is that you remember who you are and why you came to work here in the first place.”
