Attorney General Merrick Garland sparred with Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida on Tuesday as Gaetz pressed him about whether the Justice Department had colluded with local and state officials who have targeted former President Donald Trump with legal action.

Garland sidestepped a number of questions and ultimately claimed the DOJ had not been involved with civil and criminal cases targeting Trump in New York and Georgia.

The heated exchange occurred during a House Judiciary Committee hearing as Gaetz appeared eager to shed light on the DOJ’s role in cases not related to its own two federal cases against Trump.

“Mr. Attorney General, you’ve told us it’s a dangerous conspiracy theory to allege that the Department of Justice is communicating with these state and local prosecutions against Trump,” Gaetz said to open up his questioning of Garland.

Gaetz added, “You can clear it all up for us right now, will the Department of Justice provide to the committee all documents, all correspondence, between the department and Alvin Bragg’s office, and Fani Willis’ office and Letitia James’ office?”

Garland claimed the three state and local officials run “independent” offices but he was cut off by the Florida Republican, who said, “I don’t need a history lesson.”

“The question is whether or not you will provide all your documents and correspondence. That’s the question,” Gaetz said.

Garland said that James, the attorney general of New York, Bragg the Manhattan District attorney and Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Georgia, are each “independent” of his federal department.

“The question is whether you communicate with them, not whether you control them,” Gaetz said before he demanded Garland voluntarily hand over communications between the state and local offices and the DOJ.

Gaetz then pressed Garland for his thoughts on Judge Juan Merchan, who is presiding over Trump’s New York criminal trial, will sentence him on July 11, and who donated to now-President Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020. New York rules on judicial ethics prohibit judges from “soliciting funds for, paying an assessment to, or making a contribution to a political organization or candidate.”

“When you were a judge, did you ever make political donations to partisan candidates?” Gaetz asked him.

Garland said he did not donate to partisan political campaigns and said he would not comment on the upcoming sentence that Merchan will hand down after Trump was found guilty of 34 felony counts of “falsifying business records” in the case last week.

“I’m well aware you’re not asking me a hypothetical,” Garland told Gaetz. “You’re asking me to comment on a jury verdict in another jurisdiction which has to be respected.”

Gaetz followed up by asking the AG to comment on another conflict of interest involving Merchan – his daughter Loren Merchan’s work as a political consultant for high-profile Democrats – including the Biden campaign, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign for the Democratic nomination in 2019, Newsweek reported.

“Well, it seems you’re connecting the dots, Mr. Attorney General! I’m just asking in general principle, but you are aware that Judge Merchan’s daughter was profiting off this prosecution,” Gaetz said.

“You are aware that that creates the appearance of impropriety. You know there’s a reason there’s a federal rule against judges giving donations because it is the very attack on the judicial process that we’re concerned about,” Gaetz added.

Garland concluded he did not “agree” with Gaetz and further declined to offer clear answers to his questions.

In his opening remarks on Tuesday morning, Garland appeared to try to get ahead of answering tough questions from Republicans about the DOJ’s role in prosecutions of Trump in New York and Georgia.

He labeled any effort to connect the DOJ to those prosecutions as a “conspiracy theory.”

Staff Writer