Mr. Biden was also said to have considered Sally Q. Yates, the former deputy attorney general in the final years of the Obama administration; Doug Jones, a former Alabama senator; and Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts who briefly ran for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.
Judge Garland will have to reckon with a Justice Department accused of politicization over Mr. Trump’s efforts to influence investigations and former Attorney General William P. Barr’s willingness to serve his political agenda. Obama-era Justice Department officials have called for the Biden administration to strengthen the department’s independence from politics, and Judge Garland will also have to navigate demands from some Democrats to investigate Mr. Trump.
The decision to appoint Judge Garland appeared similar to one that Gerald R. Ford made after the Watergate scandal. Mr. Ford nominated Edward H. Levi, a university president whose political leanings were unclear, to take over to restore the Justice Department’s credibility. Democrats and Republicans later praised Mr. Levi’s ability to apolitically repair the department.
Judge Garland will most likely face pressure to also try to steer the department’s priorities from the Trump administration’s focus on immigration and violent crime to issues that Democrats have typically prioritized, like policing overhauls and voting rights. But he will also have to make decisions about how to handle the tax investigation of Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. Republicans, still angry over the inquiry into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, have called for the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel to investigate the matter.
Mr. Garland, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was nominated by Mr. Obama in 2016 to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. While the nomination dismayed some liberals, Senate Republicans — led by the majority leader, Mr. McConnell — refused to vote on his nomination, saying that the opening should not be filled in an election year.
Ultimately, Mr. Trump filled the vacancy with Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a conservative in the mold of Justice Scalia.
Judge Garland’s career was significantly affected by the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people. Mr. Garland, a Justice Department official at the time, led the prosecution of Timothy McVeigh until a permanent lead prosecutor was named. The department ultimately secured a conviction of Mr. McVeigh, who was executed in 2001.

Source: New York Times

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