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In a fiery speech Thursday to Justice Department officials and federal prosecutors across the country, Attorney General Merrick Garland blasted efforts to turn the department into a “political weapon” amid continuing attacks from former President Donald Trump and his allies.
Garland condemned “escalating attacks” against the department’s employees over the years through “conspiracy theories, dangerous lies, attempts to intimidate and threaten public servants by repeatedly and publicly targeting them, and actual threats of violence.”
“The individual targeting and intimidation of employees of this department simply for doing their jobs is dangerous,” he said at Justice Department headquarters in Washington. “It is outrageous that we should have to face these baseless attacks for doing the right thing and upholding the rule of law.”
The attorney general’s comments came after President Trump alleged that the Justice Department was being used as a weapon against him in his criminal prosecution and suggested he would politicize the department if he were back in the Oval Office.
He did not mention Trump or his allies by name.
“There are no different rules for our friends and our foes, different rules for the powerful and different rules for the powerless, different rules for the rich and different rules for the poor, different rules for Democrats and different rules for Republicans, or different rules based on race or ethnicity,” the attorney general said.
“Our code is a commitment to not let this country become one where law enforcement is treated as a political tool,” Garland added to applause.
President Trump and his top aides have publicly discussed plans to dismantle the Department of Justice and its law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, or to prosecute his political opponents.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the Justice Department under Biden, alleging without evidence that the president is using the department to pursue criminal charges against Trump and his associates for political purposes. Trump made this claim again during Tuesday’s presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, falsely claiming that Biden and his administration were behind a state-level election interference lawsuit filed against Trump by the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia, and a criminal fraud lawsuit filed against Trump in New York state.
“They weaponized the Department of Justice. Every case involved the Department of Justice, from Fani Willis in Atlanta to the Attorney General of New York to the District Attorney of New York. Every case,” Trump alleged. “And they say, ‘Oh, he’s a criminal.’ I set them up to go after me.”
In his speech, Garland said his goal as the Justice Department’s top pick in 2021 is to “robustly protect the Department’s independence from political interference in criminal investigations.”
Garland said the Defense Department has taken steps to achieve this goal, including reintroducing policies regulating Defense department personnel’s contacts with the White House and Congress, clarifying guidelines for FBI classified investigations and updating measures to protect reporters from law enforcement investigations.
Garland also thanked prosecutors and Justice Department officials for refusing to “bow to politics” or “cough under pressure.”
“You deserve better,” he said.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Devan Cole contributed to this report.