Attorney General Merrick Garland was already in the hot seat at Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, but Sen. Ted Cruz absolutely torched him for his partisanship.
The Texas Republican confronted Garland about his politicization of the Department of Justice, particularly in handling threats made to Supreme Court judges after a draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked, Fox News reported.
Protesters began showing up at the homes of six justices, including Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s residence, where authorities apprehended an armed man intending to kill the judge ahead of the finalized opinion.
These protests and threats arguably could be classified as attempts to influence the court, but the Justice Department refused to treat them as such.
Cruz was trying to elicit answers about why that was during the hearing, and stated, “You did nothing.”
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Garland eventually admitted that nobody was prosecuted for that particular criminal offense despite the obvious application of the law.
He began by stating he had high expectations that Garland would be nonpartisan in his position but has since become disillusioned.
“In my judgment, the Department of Justice has been politicized to the greatest extent I’ve ever seen in this country, and it has done a discredit to the Department of Justice, to the FBI, and the administration of law in this country,” Cruz said.
He leaned on Garland to state whether he used the statute that prohibited protesting with the “intent of influencing any judge” to prosecute anyone who showed up at the justices’ homes.
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“Have you brought a single case against any of these protesters threatening [Justice Brett Kavanaugh]? Have you brought even one?” Cruz, with the printed law behind him on a tripod, said pointedly to Garland.
The attorney general attempted to make the case that he sent marshals to the justices’ homes but deflected from answering Cruz’s question.
“Let me try again,” Cruz interrupted Garland’s evasive answer.
“Has the Department of Justice brought even a single case…
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