(4 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Washington, DC – 4 June 2024
1. Wide, House Judiciary Committee hearing starts
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Jim Jordan, (R) Ohio – Judiciary Committee Chairman:
"Mr. Garland, we’re glad you’re here today. We’ve got lots of questions. Many Americans believe there’s now a double standard in our justice system. They believe that because there is."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Jerry Nadler, (D) New York – Judiciary Committee Ranking Member:
"This committee, once an agent of momentum to move our country forward, has become little more than a field office for the Trump campaign."
4. Back view, Garland testifying
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Matt Gaetz, (R) Florida:
++SHOT CHANGES DURING SOUNDBITE++
"Our concern is that the facts and the law aren’t being followed. A target is acquired here, Trump.
(Garland off camera: I’m sorry, I don’t agree with anything you just said, but I’m not going to comment on it.)
Okay. You won’t comment on it, Mr. Attorney General, but you had no problem dispatching Matthew Colangelo. Who is Matthew Colangelo?"
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Merrick Garland, Attorney General:
"That is false. I did not dispatch Matthew Colangelo. That’s false, false."
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Steve Cohen, (D) Tennessee:
"I’m a little perplexed, I’d like to ask you a few questions. They’ve raised the fact that this is the first time that there’s been a prosecution of a president’s gone after, allegedly gone after his opponent, has there ever been another time in American history when a president was involved in an insurrection trying to overthrow the government of the United States of America other than January 6th?"
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Merrick Garland, Attorney General:
"The answer is no, but I do not intend to comment on the charges in the prosecution of the former president, any more than I would, comment on, Mr. Hur’s report, I just, I just I’m not going to comment on matters that are before courts."
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Steve Cohen, (D) Tennessee:
"And so you haven’t weaponized the Justice Department in terms of hiding and protecting Democrats (Robert) Menendez, (Henry) Cuellar and Hunter Biden?"
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Merrick Garland, Attorney General:
"The Justice Department follows the facts and the law. We prosecute like cases like, and we make decisions about different cases in different ways. We do not allow the political party or the ethnicity or the religion or the race or the wealth or the influence of someone we’re investigating to make a difference in our charging decisions."
11. Wide, hearing
STORYLINE:
Attorney General Merrick Garland forcefully rebuked what he described as unprecedented attacks on the Justice Department Tuesday, telling Republicans who have sought to hold him in contempt that he will not be intimidated.
During a hearing before the the House Judiciary Committee, Garland condemned the conspiracy theory pushed by Donald Trump’s allies that the department was behind Trump’s state court prosecution in New York in which the former Republican president was convicted of 34 felony charges.
And Garland pushed back against “baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods” being peddled about the FBI as well as threats to defund the special counsel prosecutions of former President Trump.
His appearance came as Republicans have moved to hold him in contempt for the Biden administration’s refusal to hand over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, which focused on the president’s handling of classified documents.
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