Merrick Garland dismissed criticisms that he should have withheld Robert Hur's report on Biden's mishandling of classified documents.
Speaking at a press conference, Garland said his release of the full report was in line with the traditional approach and necessary for transparency. He said his actions reflected his promise at the beginning of his tenure to release all special counsel reports.
“It’s consistent with the precedents, the full disclosure of all special counsel reports in the entire 25 years in which the regulation has been in effect,” Garland said. “It’s consistent with a common practice during the previous period of the independent counsel statute. The idea that an attorney general would edit, or redact, or censor the special counsel’s explanation for why the special counsel reached the decision that the special counsel did? That’s absurd.
He added that his ability to release the report unredacted was a testament to Biden’s promise to restore the independence and integrity of the Justice Department. “When the president announced my nomination, he said to me directly and then to the American public that he intended to restore the independence and the integrity of the Justice Department and that he wanted me to serve as the lawyer for the American people, not the lawyer for the president,” Garland said. “I sincerely believe that that’s what he intended then, and I sincerely believe that that’s what he intends now.
Biden and many Democrats took issue with Hur’s characterization, claiming that Hur was inappropriately inserting politics into the report, outside the scope of his assignment.
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