乔·拜登总统提名的司法部长梅里克·加兰周一在确认听证会上告诉参议员，他在司法部就职后的第一次简报将是1月6日对美国国会大厦的袭击。
加兰目前是联邦上诉法院的一名法官，他以前在克林顿司法部工作，在20世纪90年代监督对俄克拉荷马城被定罪的炸弹手蒂莫西·麦克维的起诉。他说，现在国内恐怖主义的威胁甚至更大。
“这看起来是一个极具侵略性和完全合适的调查开始，在全国范围内，就像我们最初的俄克拉荷马城调查一样。加兰告诉参议院司法委员会的成员。“我当然同意，我们正面临着一个比当时俄克拉荷马城更危险的时期。”
他称对国会大厦的袭击是他见过的“对民主进程最令人发指的袭击”，并表示他将追查调查中的所有线索。
他说:“我们从地面上的人开始，我们努力接触那些参与和进一步参与的人，我们将追踪这些线索，无论他们把我们带到哪里。”。
除了监督俄克拉荷马城爆炸案的起诉，加兰后来在起诉涉及恐怖分子泰德·卡钦斯基和1996年亚特兰大奥运会爆炸案的国内恐怖案件中发挥了关键作用。
当爱荷华州参议员查克·格拉斯利问及对乔·拜登总统的儿子亨特·拜登的调查时，加兰说他还没有和居民讨论过这个问题。
加兰告诉格拉斯利:“总统在我被提名前后的每一份公开声明中都非常清楚地表明，关于调查和起诉的决定将由司法部做出。”。
总统的儿子亨特·拜登在12月宣布特拉华州的联邦检察官正在调查他的“税务”
加兰还被问及特朗普政府关于南部边境家庭分离的政策。
“我认为这项政策是可耻的，”他说。“我无法想象还有什么比把父母和孩子分开更糟糕的了。”
当被问及是否会让特别顾问约翰·杜伦(John Durham)完成对俄罗斯干预2016年选举的调查时，加兰表示，他不知道有任何理由认为杜伦应该被免职。
在前司法部长威廉·巴尔任期的最后几天，杜伦被任命为特别顾问。
“我没有任何关于调查的信息。今天我坐在这里，我要做的第一件事就是和达勒姆先生谈谈他的调查进展如何。加兰说:“我知道他被允许继续留任，今天坐在这里，我没有理由认为这不是正确的决定。“我没有任何理由认为他不应该留在原地。”
Garland tells senators his first priority will be prosecuting Capitol insurrection
President Joe Biden's nominee for attorney general, Merrick Garland, at his confirmation hearing Monday, told senators his first briefing once he takes office at the Justice Department will be on the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Garland, currently a federal appeals court judge who worked previously in the Clinton Justice Department overseeing the prosecution of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the 1990s, said the threat from domestic terrorism is even greater now.
"It looks like an extremely aggressive and perfectly appropriate beginning to an investigation, all across the country in the same way our original Oklahoma City investigation was. Many times more," Garland told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "I certainly agree that we are facing a more dangerous period than we faced in Oklahoma City at the end at that time."
He called the attack on the Capitol the most "heinous attack on a democratic process" that he's ever seen and said that he will pursue all leads in the investigation.
"We begin with the people on the ground and we work our way up to those who are involved and further involved and we will pursue these leads, wherever they take us," he said.
Besides overseeing the prosecution into the Oklahoma City bombing, Garland later played a key role in prosecuting domestic terror cases involving Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and the bombing at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
When asked by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa about the investigation into President Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden, Garland says he hasn't discussed it with the resident.
"The president made abundantly clear in every public statement before and after my nomination that decisions about investigations and prosecutions will be left at the Justice Department," Garland told Grassley.
Hunter Biden, the president's son, announced in December that federal prosecutors in Delaware are investigating his "tax affairs."
Garland also was asked about the Trump administration policy on family separation at the southern border.
"I think that the policy was shameful," he said. "I can't imagine anything worse than separating parents from their children."
Asked whether he will let special counsel John Durham finish his investigation into the origins of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Garland said he knows of no reason to think Durham should be removed.
Durham was named special counsel in the waning days of former Attorney General William Barr's tenure.
"I don't have any information about the investigation. As I sit here today and another one of the very first things I'm going to have to do to speak with Mister Durham and speak about how his investigation is going. I understand he has been permitted to remain in his position, and sitting here today, I have no reason to think that that was not the correct decision," Garland said. "I don't have any reason to think that he should not remain in place."
