Attorney General Merrick Garland, criticized by many on the right for the alleged weaponization of the Department of Justice against conservatives and political enemies of President Biden, appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in September of 2023 for a hearing on the state of the Department of Justice and its alleged bias against the right.<\/p>\n
As could be predicted, the hearing was fiery and characterized much more by soundbites and explosive allegations than AG Garland coolly or effectively shutting down the allegations, with firebrand GOP congressman Matt Gaetz leading the charge and obliterating Biden\u2019s China stance.<\/p>\n
Questioning AG Garland on the China situation and a potentially misplaced emphasis on North Korea, Rep. Gaetz\u00a0asked<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cAre you saying that North Korea has the same malign influence risk to the United States as the Chinese Communist Party. Because here\u2019s what it looks like. It looks like the Chinese gave all this money to the Bidens and then you guys came in and got rid of the China initiative and it was successful. I saw one rationale that you guys got rid of the China initiative because it was racial profiling.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n Responding, Garland argued that North Korea is a \u201cdangerous actor,\u201d saying, \u201cThere are a lot of questions that you just asked. Let me start with the first one about North Korea. North Korea is a dangerous actor, both kinetically and with respect to cyber.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n The two then had a contentious back and forth, with Rep. Gaetz snapping, \u201cAnswer the question about whether or not you know about all the millions of dollars-\u201d and AG Garland snapping back, \u201cYou don\u2019t want me to answer about North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n Rep. Gaetz fired back, noting that most people know the truth about North K orea and snapping, \u201cI already know the answer, and so does everyone. They\u2019re not the same risk as China. So let\u2019s get on to serious questions and serious answers. Do you know about the money that moved through Rob Walker\u2019 shell companies, yes or no?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201d<\/p>\n Garland refused to give anything approaching a real or helpful answer to the corruption question, instead telling Rep. Gaetz, \u201cAs I have said repeatedly, I have left these matters to Mr. Weiss. I have not intruded. I have not interfered<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Then, after more back and forth, Rep. Gaetz asked about FBI involvement on January 6 and potential paid informants it had in the rowdy crowd, asking, \u201cI got to get to this one thing on January. So did the FBI lose count of the number of paid informants on January 6?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n AG Garland tried to dodge, saying, \u201cLet me answer your question about China.<\/em>\u201d Rep. Gaetz tried to hold his feet over the fire, snapping back, \u201cNo, I want you to answer this question. I only get 5 minutes. You\u2019ve already sort of I think screwed the pooch on China. On January 6th, did you lose count of the number of federal assets? Did you lose count and order an audit?<\/em>\u201d AG Garland refused to answer the January 6 question.<\/p>\n The White House criticized the hearing in a statement, with White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams\u00a0saying<\/a>,\u00a0\u201cExtreme House Republicans are running a not-so-sophisticated distraction campaign to try to cover up their own actions that are hurtling America to a dangerous and costly government shutdown. They cannot even pass a military funding bill, \u2026 so they cranked up a circus of a hearing full of lies and disinformation with the sole goal of baselessly attacking President Biden and his family<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cDon\u2019t be fooled: they want to distract from the reality that their own chaos and inability to govern is going to shut down the government in a matter of days. \u2026 These sideshows won\u2019t spare House Republicans from bearing responsibility for inflicting serious damage on the country<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch Gaetz and Garland fight it out here:<\/p>\n