GOOGL Alphabet Inc

By Sadie Gurman and Aruna Viswanatha 

WASHINGTON -- Judge Merrick Garland, President Biden's pick for attorney general, promised to combat the rising threat of domestic extremism, saying that a sprawling federal investigation into the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol would be his first priority if confirmed for the job.

"I think this was the most heinous attack on the democratic processes that I've ever seen, and one that I never expected to see in my lifetime, " Judge Garland told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday. He added that the current investigation into the riot -- which has led to around 250 people facing criminal charges to date -- appeared to be "extremely aggressive and perfectly appropriate."

Judge Garland, a 1997 Clinton appointee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, received a warm reception during his daylong confirmation hearing. Republicans and Democrats hailed the nominee, who spearheaded domestic terrorism investigations in the 1990s, as qualified both to fight the threat of extremist violence and to steady a Justice Department roiled by political storms during the Trump administration.

"I can think of few people better suited" to lead the department, said Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), the Judiciary Committee chairman. The top two Republicans on the panel, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina both described the judge as a "good pick."

While the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack is expected to largely go on unchanged, Judge Garland, if confirmed, is expected to oversee a dramatic shift in the agency's approach to a series of other issues, from civil-rights enforcement and police reform to the use of the federal death penalty and the level of discretion prosecutors have in charging crimes.

"My grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. The country took us in and protected us," Judge Garland said, choking back tears as he recounted his family's arrival in the U.S. when Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) asked about his motivation for taking the job. "I feel an obligation to the country to pay back. This is the highest, best use of my own set of skills to pay back," he said.

Several senators pressed the judge on how he would handle politically sensitive investigations and potential pressure from the White House, after Democrats criticized former President Donald Trump for what they viewed as his efforts to insert himself in the Justice Department's traditionally independent affairs.

"I do not plan to be interfered with by anyone. I expect the Justice Department will make its own decisions in this regard," Judge Garland said.

"I would not have taken this job if I thought that politics would have any influence over prosecutions and investigations," he said.

Republicans in particular pressed Mr. Garland on how he would handle a criminal tax investigation into Mr. Biden's son, Hunter, and a special-counsel probe of the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 2016 Russia probe being run by federal prosecutor John Durham.

Judge Garland said he planned to be briefed on Mr. Durham's investigation as one of his first acts on the job, and said he approved of allowing Mr. Durham to complete his inquiry.

He also said he never discussed the investigation into Hunter Biden with the president, and that he agreed to be nominated because Mr. Biden had promised that the Justice Department would make all decisions about investigations and prosecutions.

That Judge Garland was taking questions from senators who will vote on his confirmation was a turnabout from 2016, when Senate Republicans, then in the majority, refused to grant him a hearing after President Barack Obama nominated him for the Supreme Court.

Judge Garland also told senators he would pursue strong enforcement of civil-rights laws, focusing on hate crimes prosecutions, voting rights and the equitable treatment of minorities in the criminal justice system. He said he planned to address "the problem of mass incarceration" and signaled that his Justice Department would show leniency for some lower-level drug offenders, reversing Trump administration policy.

Democrats want him to make racial justice a focus of the department's work after last summer's protests over police killings and abuse of Black people.

Judge Garland said he, too, was shocked by videos of the killings. "It did bring everything to the fore and created a moment in which we have an opportunity to make dramatic changes and really bring forth equal justice under the law," he said.

He said the Justice Department should wield its civil-rights authority to hold entire police departments accountable for police misconduct through wide-ranging pattern-or-practice investigations that sometimes end in court-enforceable overhauls. The Trump administration had curtailed those investigations, saying it was unfair for the federal government to impose costly changes on cities.

"It is an important tool the department has for ensuring accountability, " Judge Garland said. But he said he agreed with Mr. Biden that police departments shouldn't be stripped of their funds, which some liberal activists had suggested in response to high-profile police shootings this past summer.

On the federal death penalty, which the Trump administration restarted after a nearly 20-year-hiatus, Judge Garland said he is concerned about "a large number of exonerations," the "increasing randomness, almost arbitrariness of its application" and "enormously disparate impact on Black Americans and members of communities of color." The policy would ultimately be decided by Mr. Biden, who is also opposed to capital punishment.

Several Republicans also pressed the judge on how he would address rising violent-crime rates around the country, and the violence that followed some Black Lives Matter protests last summer.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), asked whether he viewed "assaults on federal courthouses or other federal properties acts of...domestic terrorism," referring to related damage during nighttime unrest in Portland, Ore. Judge Garland said he viewed any attack on government property as a crime, but would view it as a domestic extremist attack if demonstrators were specifically seeking to halt federal operations. "Both are criminal, but one is a core attack on our democratic institutions," he said.

Judge Garland would supervise, as well, the antitrust case against Alphabet Inc.'s Google -- the biggest such lawsuit in decades -- filed by the department in the fall, alleging the tech giant used anticompetitive tactics to maintain a monopoly position in search and search advertising. Google denies the allegations.

The judge, who described antitrust issues as his "first love in law school," said he would take enforcement seriously. "The Supreme Court has repeatedly referred to the antitrust laws as the charter of American economic liberty, and I deeply believe that," he said.

Judge Garland's allies portrayed him as uniquely equipped for the task of running the agency in the post-Trump era, likening the judge's potential tenure to that of Edward Levi, President Gerald Ford's attorney general, who is widely credited for restoring public trust in the Justice Department after the Watergate scandal. On Monday morning, two of Mr. Levi's sons released letters in support of the judge's nomination.

"Ed Levi is my model for the attorney general," Judge Garland said. "His role was to be sure that justice was meted out fairly and impartially without any special favors for anyone."

Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com and Aruna Viswanatha at Aruna.Viswanatha@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 22, 2021 16:59 ET (21:59 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.