Merrick Garland’s 'rigid adherence to norms' aids 'Republican bad faith attacks': analysis

Attorney General Merrick Garland's efforts to depoliticize the Department of Justice (DOJ) after the Trump administration have merely resulted in surrendering to the politics of the far right, according to a recent analysis.

According to The New Republic's Alex Shephard, Garland's tenure at the top of the DOJ has shown a pattern of overcorrecting to the right in order to placate the insatiable demands of Republicans. Shephard argued that the most recent example of this was Garland remaining silent in the wake of special counsel Robert Hur's nearly 400-page report summarizing his decision to not charge President Joe Biden — an unusual length for a report exonerating the subject of an investigation — for mishandling classified documents. Shephard wrote that the report's conclusion that Biden was innocent was overshadowed by Hur's "gratuitous" attacks on Biden's age and mental faculties, which were exploited by Republicans.

"Three years into Garland’s term as attorney general, it’s clear that he has failed," Shephard wrote. "Far from rebuilding the Justice Department’s reputation, his fear of being attacked as a partisan has prevented him from carrying out some of his basic duties. His rigid adherence to 'norms' has instead aided Republican bad faith attacks."

READ MORE: 'The villain here is Merrick Garland': White House upset with AG's handling of Biden probe

"For all of the efforts undertaken to cleanse the agency of the politics of his predecessor, Garland has allowed a more insidious politics to seep into the Department of Justice’s affairs," he added. "[I]t only appears that he has given it his blessing."

Shephard noted that the attorney general has himself been a victim of bad-faith partisanship and "should be sitting on the Supreme Court," were it not for then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Kentucky) obstruction of his confirmation process during President Barack Obama's second term (McConnell later bragged that stealing Garland's Supreme Court seat was "the most consequential thing I've ever done").

"He is arguably the poster child of the GOP’s deviation from norms and their general adherence to bad faith in all areas of politics," Shephard wrote of Garland. "And yet, somehow, he has learned nothing from that experience. If anything, he’s paid it forward, onto fresh victims."

After the release of the Hur report, Biden was reportedly frustrated with his attorney general, with one unnamed Biden donor telling Politico that Democrats "bend over backwards not to look partisan, and then they end up hiring people that are partisan but in the other direction." He added that in regard to Hur's unflattering report, "there’s no question in my mind that the villain here is Merrick Garland."

READ MORE: How Merrick Garland just helped the GOP gaslight America