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Garland to condemn escalating attacks and threats against Justice Dept. employees
Attorney General Merrick Garland is condemning “an escalation of attacks” against the Justice Department and pushing back against what he says are the “conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods…and threats of actual violence” that endanger the department’s employees.
Garland’s defense of the federal employees who work for the Justice Department will be part of a speech he’s delivering to staff Thursday.
Billed as an address about the department’s norms, the attorney general will praise the efforts of federal prosecutors and investigators and stress the independence of the Justice Department.
“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,” Garland is expected to say, according to excerpts of his remarks obtained by CBS News.
Garland’s comments come as the presidential election enters its final stretch, nearly four years after the tumultuous presidential transition amid the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“The public servants of the Department of Justice do not bend to politics,” the attorney general is expected to say. “We will fiercely protect the independence of this Department from political interference in our criminal investigations.”
The Justice Department has weathered heavy criticism from Republicans and Democrats for its handling of various politically sensitive probes, including investigations into former President Donald Trump, President Biden and the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
Trump was charged in two cases by special counsel Jack Smith — one for alleged conduct tied to his efforts to remain in power after he lost the 2020 election, and another now-dismissed case brought for alleged mishandling of classified information. He and his allies have accused the government of “weaponizing” the Justice Department against them.
Another special counsel, Robert Hur, investigated President Joe Biden after classified documents from his time as vice president were found in his private residence and personal office. Hur opted not to charge the president and notably characterized Mr. Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” a description that prompted an outcry from some Democrats. And Hunter Biden, the president’s son, pleaded guilty last week to numerous counts of tax fraud filed by a third special counsel, David Weiss.
Because of the political nature of the probes, Garland elevated all three men to special counsel roles and has said they’ve operated independently. Still, they’ve faced setbacks.
One setback came in July, when the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling that afforded former presidents — including Trump – immunity from prosecution for “official acts” taken while in office. The case was brought by Trump as a challenge to Smith’s election-related indictment against the former president.
Some of the alleged conduct the high court ruled to be out of bounds for federal prosecutors involved Trump’s interactions with Justice Department officials in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.
“We will not allow this Department to be used as a political weapon,” Garland is expected to say.
There has been an increase in threats against Justice Department employees and other law enforcement officials, members of Congress and their staff in recent years. In June, the attorney general highlighted in congressional testimony “a worrying spike in threats of violence against those who serve the public.”
“Those threats have targeted members of Congress, police officers, judges, jurors, election workers, and the Justice Department’s own employees,” he said.
The attorney general is highlighting these threats again Thursday, against the backdrop of a tight presidential race and a fraught political landscape.
“It is dangerous to target and intimidate individual employees of this Department simply for doing their jobs,” Garland will tell the workforce. “It is outrageous that you have to face these unfounded attacks because you are doing what is right and upholding the rule of law…You deserve better.”
TRENTON, N.J. — Democratic Newark City Council President LaMonica McIver has defeated Republican small businessman Carmen Bucco in a contest in New Jersey’s 10th Congressional District that opened up because of the death of Rep. Donald Payne Jr. in April.
McIver will serve out the remainder of Payne’s term, which ends in January. She and Bucco will face a rematch on the November ballot for the full term.
McIver said in a statement Wednesday that she stands on the “shoulders of giants,” naming Payne as chief among them.
She cast ahead to the November election, saying the right to make reproductive health choices was on the ballot as well as whether the economy should benefit the wealthy or “hard working Americans.”
“I will fight because the purpose of politics and the purpose of our vote is to give the people of our communities and our nation a bold voice,” she said.
Bucco congratulated McIver on the victory in a statement but said he’s looking forward to the rematch in November.
“I am not going anywhere,” he said in an email. “We still have a second chance to make district 10 great again!”
Who are LaMonica McIver and Carmen Bucco?
McIver emerged as the Democratic candidate in a crowded field in the July special election. A member of the city council of New Jersey’s biggest city since 2018, she also worked for Montclair Public Schools as a personnel director and plans to focus on affordability, infrastructure, abortion rights and “protecting our democracy,” she told The Associated Press earlier this summer.
Bucco describes himself on his campaign website as a small-business owner influenced by his upbringing in the foster system. He lists support for law enforcement and ending corruption as top issues.
The 10th District lies in a heavily Democratic and majority-Black region of northern New Jersey. Republicans are outnumbered by more than 6 to 1.
It’s been a volatile year for Democrats in New Jersey, where the party dominates state government and the congressional delegation.
Among the developments were the conviction on federal bribery charges of U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, who has denied the charges, and the demise of the so-called county party line — a system in which local political leaders give their preferred candidates favorable position on the primary ballot.
Democratic Rep. Andy Kim, who’s running for Menendez’s seat, and other Democrats brought a federal lawsuit challenging the practice as part of his campaign to oust Menendez, who has resigned since his conviction.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs at same Brooklyn detention center that held R. Kelly, Sam Bankman-Fried, other high-profile inmates
A second judge refused to grant bail to Sean “Diddy” Combs on Wednesday and he could remain in federal custody at a Brooklyn detention center until his trial for sex trafficking charges. Combs joins other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, fallen cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, rapper Ja Rule —even Al Sharpton served a brief stint— who were held at the same federal detention center.
Notorious for its horrible conditions —inmates won a $10 million class action settlement after enduring frigid conditions during an 8-day blackout in 2019— the waterfront industrial complex, MDC Brooklyn, houses 1,200 inmates.
JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Violence and corruption have long plagued the facility; U.S. District Judge Gary R. Brown of the Eastern District of New York wrote the detention center had “dangerous, barbaric conditions” in a recent sentencing opinion. Two inmates were stabbed to death in recent months and several correction officers have been convicted for smuggling contraband and accepting bribes.
Combs joins a list of high-profile personalities that have landed at the MDC Brooklyn, partly because the city’s other federal detention center, MDC New York, closed in 2021, also due to horrible conditions. The disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in his cell there in 2019. “Numerous and serious” instances of misconduct among corrections staff gave Epstein the opportunity to kill himself, a subsequent federal watchdog investigation found.
Kelly sued the federal detention center in 2022 for wrongly putting him on suicide watch after his sentencing. Kelly sought $100 million because he said the detention center knew he wasn’t suicidal after he was convicted in 2021 for racketeering and violating the Mann Act, which bars transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
Yuki Iwamura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Former crypto billionaire Bankman-Fried survived on bread, water and sometimes peanut butter when he was in the MDC Brooklyn, his attorney said, because the detention center continued to serve him a “flesh diet” despite requests for vegan dishes.
Ja Rule stayed at the MDC Brooklyn for a brief time before being released after serving most of his two-year sentence for illegal gun possession. Most of his prison time was spent in a state prison in New York.
Sharpton served a 90-day sentence in 2001 and went on a hunger strike for protesting the U.S. Navy bombing of the island of Vieques, in Puerto Rico.
Combs was taken into custody on Monday and according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday he was charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution.
His attorney Marc Agnifilo told CBS News, “It’s impossible to prepare for a trial from where he is,” after a first federal judge denied Combs bail on Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky agreed with prosecutors who argued the hip-hop mogul, who is accused of using his business empire as a criminal enterprise to conceal his alleged abuse of women, is a flight risk and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community.
Agnifilo said the part of the detention center where Combs is being held is “a very difficult place to be.”
contributed to this report.
