Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee will confront Attorney General Merrick B. Garland at an oversight hearing Wednesday as they move forward with an impeachment investigation of President Joe Biden that involves accusations of lenient Justice Department treatment for the president’s son.
The hearing will offer Justice Department critics a rare chance to question the attorney general face-to-face and press him on a range of high-profile topics, including the two federal criminal cases against former President Donald Trump and the performance of the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden.
The Justice Department’s jurisdiction also cuts across a broad swath of contentious issues, and Garland could find himself fielding policy questions on topics such as gun violence and mass shootings, domestic terrorism, policing issues, immigration, efforts to combat fentanyl and the reauthorization of a contentious surveillance authority known as Section 702 that expires at the end of this year.
