Attorney general nominee sets Capitol riot as top priority

Attorney general nominee Merrick Garland said Monday that his first briefing and top priority if confirmed as attorney general would center on the sprawling investigation into the Jan. 6 riot the U.S. Capitol, as he more broadly vowed to stamp out the rising threat of domestic terrorism.

Testifying at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Garland drew parallels to the domestic terrorism threat the Justice Department faced in confronting the Ku Klux Klan and the prosecution he led of Timothy Mcveigh in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. When Garland was last in the Justice Department, he supervised that case.

“We are facing a more dangerous period than we faced in Oklahoma City at that time,” Garland asserted, promising a broad investigation into not just the rioters, but those who aided them.

Garland said that if confirmed he will supervise the prosecutions of those who forced their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6, which he called “a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government.”

He said he did not oppose a legislative commission to look into the matter, but said he hoped lawmakers would make sure their work did not interfere with prosecutors’ investigation.

Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court during the Obama administration, but Republican senators refused to even consider the pick and Trump eventually filled the judicial slot.

Garland has spent the past two decades as a federal appellate judge in Washington. His nomination has support from more than 150 former Justice Department officials from both parties and 61 former federal judges, as well as civil rights groups, the Fraternal Order of Police and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Some Republicans, though, worry Garland might abandon some initiatives undertaken by the Trump administration that they favor — including beefed-up protection of religious liberties. Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson already has rescinded some Trump-era policies, and the Justice Department has changed course in some legal cases. “What I don’t want is a return to the Obama years,” Sen. Chuck Grassley said in his opening statement.

STEFANI REYNOLDS/NEW YORK TIMES Merrick Garland, President Biden’s pick to be attorney general, testifies at his confirmation hearing Monday before the Senate Judiciary Committee that domestic terrorists must be prosecuted.