Garland, Wray Vow Dogged Investigation in Attempted Assassination of Trump
Fred Lucas /
Leaders of the Biden administration’s Justice Department and FBI, both agencies that have pursued Donald Trump relentlessly for various alleged misdeeds, vowed Sunday that they would aggressively investigate the attempted assassination of the 45th president.
The Justice Department “has no tolerance” for political violence, Attorney General Merrick Garland, who heads the agency, said in his remarks.
At the same event, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “Rest assured that we will leave no stone unturned.”
Garland said he spent Sunday morning in briefings with Justice Department officials and had briefed President Joe Biden, who appointed him.
“I have directed the FBI, the ATF, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the [Justice] Department’s National Security Division to bring every available resource to bear on this investigation,” Garland said.
ATF is the acronym for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which like the FBI is part of the Justice Department.
Eric G. Olshan is the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, having been appointed to the post by Biden in June 2023.
Garland, the controversial attorney general recently found in contempt of Congress, runs the department that has continued to investigate Trump since Biden took office in January 2021.
Garland appointed special counsel Jack Smith, with a degree of autonomy, to oversee Trump investigations.
Smith secured two grand jury indictments of Trump, one in Washington, D.C., regarding Trump’s challenge to the results of the 2020 presidential election and the other in Florida in the classified documents case.
Garland also ultimately oversaw the Justice Department when the FBI raided Trump’s Florida home in August 2022 over Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified information.
The House voted in June to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to a congressional subpoena for the audio of Biden’s two interviews with special counsel Robert Hur regarding Biden’s own alleged mishandling of classified information.
“I am grateful that former President Trump is safe following yesterday’s horrific assassination attempt,” Garland said Sunday.
The attorney general added: “I want to extend my deepest condolences to the loved ones of the spectator who was killed. Our hearts are with them, and with those critically injured and their families.”
The FBI’s Wray said the assassination attempt on Trump—who is set to be nominated this week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee—was an attack on democracy.
Trump appointed Wray as FBI director after firing James Comey.
“An attempt to assassinate a presidential candidate can only be described as absolutely despicable and will not be tolerated in this country,” Wray said, adding:
The shooter may be deceased, but the investigation is very much ongoing. And, because of that, we are limited in what we say at this point. But, what I can say is that we have committed the full force of the FBI to this investigation: both criminal and national security resources, tactical support, evidence response teams to help process the crime scene, victim services specialists, the FBI Lab, and our Operational Technology Division to process the physical evidence recovered.