'Outrageous' bullying attacks on DOJ staffers are escalating, AG Merrick Garland says

WASHINGTON – Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that Justice Department staffers have suffered an escalation of bullying attacks during the last three and a half years in the form of conspiracy theories and being singled out with threats of actual violence.

“It is dangerous to target and intimidate individual employees of this department simply for doing their jobs,” Garland said in a speech to the staff. “And it is outrageous that you have to face these unfounded attacks because you are doing what is right and upholding the rule of law.”

He said the department has reinvigorated its norms to maintain its independence from political intereference.

Garland didn't cite specific incidents, but he took over the department after what he called "a difficult period" in the wake of its entire upper leadership threatening to resign over former President Donald Trump’s demands for unfounded investigations of widespread fraud in the 2020 election, which officials told him were baseless.

Trump has called Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith − who secured indictments against the former president on charges he tried to steal the 2020 election and hoarded classified documents after leaving the White House − a "thug" who does "political hit jobs." U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ordered Trump not to call Smith a "thug" or "deranged" because she ruled he was impermissibly targeting people related to the trial.

Chutkan and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis , who is prosecuting Trump in Georgia on charges of election racketeering, have each received death threats after the former president criticized them.

Trump has recently said he would prosecute and jail his political enemies if returned to the White House.

“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social .

Trump's campaign called Garland's conduct "disgraceful" and said people driving the investigations of Trump "have to be held accountable."

"The disgraceful conduct of Attorney General Merrick Garland has done tremendous damage to a once great institution," Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a statement. "Using phony charges to interfere with the presidential election on behalf of the Democrat Party has to be stopped and those driving these Hoaxes have to be held accountable."

Garland's speech also comes at a time of increasing threats against public officials . A gunman was killed when he tried to breach the FBI's Cincinnati field office.

To restore confidence in the department’s independence, Garland revived and strengthened rules to keep it independent:

• Regulating contacts between the department and the White House and Congress.
• Strengthening guidelines for sensitive FBI investigations. The FBI has updated training and policies since past criticism of its surveillance.
• Implementing remedial measures to comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The department overhauled its surveillance warrants and training after a flawed investigation into a Trump campaign adviser .
• Updating protections for the press in law enforcement investigations.

“Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon,” Garland said. "And 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."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Outrageous' bullying attacks on DOJ staffers are escalating, AG Merrick Garland says