Attorney General Merrick Garland says in an interview that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview that aired Sunday that he would resign if asked by President Joe Biden to take action against Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump. But he doesn’t think he’ll be put in that position.
“I am sure that that will not happen, but I would not do anything in that regard,” he said on CBS “60 Minutes.” “And if necessary, I would resign. But there is no sense that anything like that will happen.”
The Justice Department is at the center of not only indictments against Trump that include an effort to overturn the 2020 election and wrongly keeping classified documents, but also cases involving Biden’s son Hunter, the aftermath of the riot at the U.S. Capitol and investigations into classified documents found in the president’s home and office. Garland has appointed three separate special counsels.
Garland has spoken only sparingly about the cases and reiterated Sunday he would not get into specifics, but dismissed claims by Trump and his supporters that the cases were timed to ruin his chances to be president in 2024.
It would be inappropriate for Biden to request a specific action regarding Trump, but the overall wording gives the impression that Garland intends to be idle in the face of Trump's criminality.
Is he saying that he won't take action against Trump period or that he would resign if the president told him to take action he didn't feel was warranted? I'm way too not low to understand the article at the moment.
I surmise this is based upon a personal request from Biden. If Biden personally asked Garland to take action against Trump, instead of allowing the DoJ to move at its (glacial) pace that he would resign.