Merrick Garland’s ex-law professor blasts him over Republican special counsel’s Biden report

Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing a deluge of backlash, including from his friend and former Harvard professor, following the release of special counsel Robert Hur’s final report on President Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents. Experts have derided the report for including what they say are partisan remarks about Biden and his memory that violate the Justice Department’s normal practice. Some, including the president, believe Hur overstepped in his comments and place some of the blame on Garland, according to Politico.

In a post to X/Twitter Laurence Tribe, a professor emeritus at Harvard who taught constitutional law for decades, agreed with the criticism of Garland.

“I’ve long respected my friend and former student Merrick Garland but he has bent too far backwards in order to avoid seeming pro-Biden,” Tribe said. “Bob Bauer, as Biden’s personal lawyer, rightly ‘raised concerns over the inclusion of these details to both Hur and Garland,'” he added in a separate post, quoting an Associated Press article in VOA News. “Garland should’ve granted Bauer’s appeal because Hur’s report violated DOJ ‘norms that work to avoid prejudicing the public against people who are not charged with a crime.’”

“It was entirely foreseeable Rob Hur would pull a Comey in his report,” former FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann added. “Garland was [100 emoji] right to have appointed a Special Counsel but wrong to pick Hur and to think only a Republican could fit the bill.”