The Senate voted to confirm Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland on Wednesday, sending the appellate judge on his mission to uphold the integrity of the Justice Department after its actions over the past years threatened to undermine it.Garland was confirmed in a 70-30 vote.The former chief judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has been praised by members of both parties. He pledged in his nomination hearing last month to “fend off any effort by anyone” to politically influence the Justice Department’s investigations, and that his first priority would be to fully prosecute the “heinous” crimes committed in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6.Garland will soon face politically charged questions at the Justice Department, including whether the Justice Department should wade into former President Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol riot, and how to handle a federal probe into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Federal investigators in Delaware have been examining multiple financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries. Garland said last month that he had not spoken to the President about the case.Garland also could oversee the investigation of the FBI’s Russia probe. But he said in his nomination hearing that he didn’t have “any reason to think” that special counsel John Durham “should not remain in place.””The President made abundantly clear in every public statement before and after my nomination that decisions about investigations and prosecutions will be left to the Justice Department,” said Garland. “That was the reason that I was willing to take on this job.”
