On Thursday, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted that he “personally approved” of the FBI’s unprecedented and controversial raid of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and announced that the Department of Justice has filed a motion to unseal the search warrant.
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Garland said during a press briefing, adding that the Department of Justice “does not take such a decision lightly.”
“The Department filed the motion to make public the warrant and receipt in light of the former president’s public confirmation of the search the surrounding circumstances and the substantial public interest in this matter,” Garland continued. “Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the Justice Department, of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law evenly without fear or favor. under my watch, that is precisely what the Justice Department is doing.”
“All Americans are entitled to the even-handed application of the law, to due process of law, and to the presumption of innocence. Much of our work is by necessity conducted out of the public eye,” Garland said. “We do that to protect the constitutional rights of all Americans and to protect the integrity of our investigations.”
Garland also addressed what he called “recent unfounded attacks on the professionalism of the FBI and Justice Department agents and prosecutors,” saying that he “will not stand by silently when their integrity is unfairly attacked.”
Garland’s comments come a week after FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned the “deeply troubling” actions of an FBI agent who allegedly worked to suppress information in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business foreign business dealings.
Wray made the comments during a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, after being asked by Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) about the alleged actions of Timothy Thibault, who Wray said was an FBI assistant special agent in charge at the Washington field office until “relatively recently.”
Kennedy questioned Wray on the allegations that Thibault – who worked on both the investigation of links between Trump and Russia and the ongoing probe into Hunter Biden – had “covered up derogatory info about Mr. Biden while working at the FBI.”
According to Politico, Wray said that he’d seen “descriptions to that effect” but that he wanted to be “careful” to not interfere with any ongoing personnel matters. Wray did, however, concede to finding the allegations “deeply troubling.”
“I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling,” he told Kennedy.
