US Attorney General Nominee Merrick Garland Faces Confirmation Hearing

And John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas issued a statement January 25 saying he expected to support Garland’s nomination.

“Judge Garland’s extensive legal experience makes him well-suited to lead the Department of Justice, and I appreciated his commitment to keep politics out of the Justice Department,” Cornyn’s statement added.

Garland has been a federal appeals court judge in Washington for the past two decades. Early in his career, Garland was best known for overseeing the investigation and prosecution of Timothy McVeigh, the man who detonated a bomb outside a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. McVeigh was convicted, sentenced to death and executed in 2001.

Now, Garland says that experience will put him in good stead in the investigation of the attack on the Capitol.

“If confirmed, I will supervise the prosecution of white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 — a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government,” he says in his prepared remarks.