Merrick Garland promises Justice Department will not be used as a ‘political weapon’ as Trump’s threats fuel harassment

US Attorney General Merrick Garland told Justice Department officials that the agency would not be used as a “political weapon” because Donald Trump's election campaign was based on a message of political persecution and was making thinly veiled threats to turn the government into a tool of retaliation.

In a sometimes emotional speech to Justice Department employees on Thursday, Garland defended the “promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon” and that the agency's standards “are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as a political apparatus.”

Justice Department officials “will not bow to politics” and “will vigorously defend the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations,” Garland said.

His comments follow attacks by the Republican presidential candidate and his allies, who have accused Garland and President Joe Biden of using the Justice Department, led by special counsel Jack Smith, as a weapon to prosecute him in two cases.

Trump was criminally charged with attempting to overturn his 2020 election defeat and withheld vast amounts of classified documents after leaving office and then obstructed efforts to get them back.

However, another special counsel, Robert Hur, separately investigated Biden for withholding classified documents from his time as vice president. However, Hur ultimately decided against charging the president.

However, his son Hunter Biden pleaded guilty last week to tax fraud charges brought by a third special counsel, David Weiss.

The Justice Department's investigation into Democratic Senator Bob Menendez also resulted in convictions for corruption and bribery.

Yet Trump continues to baselessly insist that the department targeted him and that the numerous criminal investigations and lawsuits against him are the result of a plot orchestrated by Biden to undermine his electoral chances.

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social and X accounts on Saturday, Trump threatened “long-term prison sentences” for “lawyers, political activists, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials” whom he accused of “fraud” in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

In his remarks on Thursday, Garland condemned the “dangerous” escalation of conspiracy theory-based attacks against the agency and its employees.

“Over the past three and a half years, there has been an escalation of attacks on the attorneys, agents and other employees of the Department of Justice that go far beyond the scrutiny, criticism and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work,” he said.

“These attacks have taken the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, attempts to intimidate and intimidate officials through repeated and public denigration, and threats of actual violence,” he added.

“It is dangerous and outrageous that you have to endure this,” he said.

Less than two months before Election Day, Garland stressed: “Federal prosecutors and agents must never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution intended to influence an election or to advantage or disadvantage any candidate or political party.”

Trump's attacks and attempts to undermine confidence in the election appear to be fueling threats against poll workers and local election officials, far removed from the work of federal prosecutors.

More than a third of local election officials reported threats, harassment or abuse because of their jobs, according to a 2024 survey by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law.

Since 2020, the Justice Department has seen an “unprecedented increase in threats against the officials who administer our elections,” Garland said earlier this month.

“In a democracy, people vote, argue and debate – often loudly – to achieve the political outcomes they want,” he said before a meeting with the Justice Department's Election Threats Task Force on September 4.

“And the Department of Justice will continue to steadfastly protect the right of all Americans to peacefully express their opinions, beliefs, and ideas,” he added. “But the promise of our democracy is that people will not use violence to achieve their desired outcomes.”