Merrick Garland assures senators he'd resign as attorney general if asked to do something unethical

Judge Merrick Garland, President Biden's nominee for attorney general, has spent a fair amount of time telling Republican senators during his confirmation hearing Monday that he'll operate as independently as possible in the role, and it appears they were satisfied with his assurances.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) asked Garland if he would resign in response to any unlawful or unethical requests from the executive branch. The judge explained he would first tell "the president or whoever else was asking me to do that" that the request was, in fact, unlawful. But, Garland continued, if he was unable to divert the plan to a more ethical course, he would indeed step down.

With that in mind, Garland said he isn't concerned about a situation like that arising because President Biden has made it "abundantly clear" privately and publicly "that investigations and prosecutions will be left to the Justice Department."

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Earlier in the hearing, Garland said his vision for the Justice Department is to "dispense the law fairly and impartially without respect to persons and without respect to political," which he said is in line with both his personality and "everything I've done in my career."