Merrick Garland to come out swinging against GOP critics at hearing: leaked statement

Attorney General Merrick Garland has a reputation as a mild-mannered institutionalist, but he's apparently preparing to spar with Republican critics during an appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday.

CNN has obtained Garland's planned opening remarks in which he comes out swinging against "conspiracy theories" being peddled to suggest that the Department of Justice has been "weaponized" against former President Donald Trump.

Garland will slam efforts to link the DOJ to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's successful criminal prosecution of Trump, and he will slam claims that "a jury verdict in a state trial, brought by a local District Attorney, was somehow controlled by the Justice Department."

"That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself," Garland will say, according to the leaked remarks.

The attorney general will also claim that unfounded claims about the DOJ are putting law enforcement officials in danger.

“It comes at a time when we are seeing heinous threats of violence being directed at the Justice Department’s career public servants," he is expected to say.

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Garland will also emphasize that none of these threats will deter him from doing his job.

“I will not be intimidated," he is expected to say. "And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”

The claims of the DOJ being "weaponized" against Republicans have come despite the fact that the DOJ is at the moment prosecuting several prominent Democrats, including Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), and Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.