Sen. Lindsey Graham (RS.C.) has refused a call to hold a quick confirmation hearing for Judge Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden’s nominee for attorney general, while holding the Senate’s impending second indictment of former President Donald Trump. give guilt.
Graham, who is still chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee due to an organizational decision that has not been finalized, has a request from the incoming chair, Senator Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) To hold a hearing for Garland on Feb. 8. hold, refused. The Republican said the Senate’s plan to begin Trump’s indictment a day after the proposed date meant there would not be enough time to hold Garland’s trial, while insisting that Trump’s accusation of inciting the US Capitol uprising on January 6 amounts to a Democratic attempt to gain political points. . “
“Your request is extremely unusual,” Graham wrote in a letter to Durbin on Monday. “The Senate is about to hold its first indictment against a former president, and only its fourth indictment against a president, whether or not. Under the procedure adopted by the Senate, Donald Trump’s trial on February 9 begins, but you want us to rush through Judge Garland’s trial on February 8.
“An accusation is no small matter. It requires the Senate’s full focus,” Graham added. “Democrats do not get political points in an unprecedented act of political theater on the one hand, but also try to claim the mantle of good government on the other.”
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Graham maintained that the confirmation hearing for Garland, which he called a “good choice” for Attorney General, took place only hours before the January 6 uprising, which resulted in Trump’s second indictment had to take place and pointed out that the last five advocates general had two days of confirmation hearings. Graham said Garland could not get two days because “Democrats voted to continue” with the Trump indictment, while the trial and trial are held simultaneously, “will not give the necessary attention.
Graham’s letter was in response to a letter Durbin sent him earlier in the day, claiming that there was ‘simply no justification’ for objecting by the February 8 date. Durbin suggested that a risk to national security could not be taken quickly if he tried Garland quickly. He also said he hoped the trial would proceed in a ‘dual way’, but warned that he was “willing to take other steps to speed up the Senate’s discussion of Judge Garland’s appointment if his trial does not would not continue. ‘ It is not clear what additional steps Durbin plans to take to expedite the trial.
Garland was former President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after his death in February 2016. Republicans controversially blocked confirmation hearings for Garland, which they said were due to the presidential election about eight months after the nomination. took place. Garland’s nomination degenerated after Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was nominated by Trump after the election. However, the GOP-led Senate had no similar doubts about holding hearings for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Newsweek reached out to Durbin’s office for comment.