Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday said he wants to leave any reviews of the previous administration actions to the department’s internal watchdog.
Garland’s comments address calls from Democrats who want a broad investigation of Trump’s abuse of the department to carry out political vendettas, including protection of himself and his allies.
Garland said that reviewing the previous administration’s actions was “a complicated question,” and that he was interested in protecting career department employees from the change of political administrations.
“I don’t want the department’s career people to think that a new group comes in and immediately applies a political lens,” Garland said.
Garland referred to investigations being brought by Michael Horowitz, inspector general, noting that they spoke to the question of whether Mr. Trump had improperly used the department’s powers to investigate and prosecute.
“It’s his job to look at these things,” Mr. Garland said of Mr. Horowitz. “He’s very good at this — let us know when there are problems and what changes should be made, if they should be. I don’t want to prejudge anything. It’s just not fair to the current employees.”
Covered by the New York Times and CNN.
