Merrick Garland had been quiet for three days about the search warrant executed on Monday by two dozen FBI agents at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. But on Thursday, when the 69-year-old attorney-general stepped in front of the cameras to break his silence on the unprecedented move against a former president, he defended the FBI’s actions, suggesting that both legality and democracy were at stake.
“Faithful adherence to the rule of law is the bedrock principle of the justice department and of our democracy. Upholding the rule of law means applying the law without fear or favour,” he said. “Under my watch, that is precisely what the justice department is doing.”
The swoop on the Florida property, endorsed by a federal judge and personally approved by Garland, was part of an investigation by the US justice department into Trump’s handling of classified materials from his time in the White House that had been running for several months, according to people familiar with the probe.