Nominee Garland says politics won't influence DOJ criminal probes

President Joe Biden’s attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, vowed on Monday to protect the integrity of the Justice Department from partisan influence, in an effort to restore confidence after President Donald Trump repeatedly sought to bend the department to his will. Trump, a Republican who lost to Biden in November, for years attacked Justice Department investigations of his 2016 campaign and Russian election interference as a “witch hunt” or a “hoax.”

Garland, in his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, also vowed to make the investigation of the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol a top priority.

The next attorney general will inherit a few investigations that began during the Trump administration of the origin of those probes and also of Hunter Biden, the new president’s son.