we have breaking news attorney general Merrick Garland is speaking to Department of Justice employees about escalating attacks and threats and his vow to not allow the doj to be used as a quote political weapon let's listen earlier this spring and I am thinking of Heroes like Tommy's family who have made the kind of sacrifice that no one should ever have to make in addition to seeing how you have operated in the face of dangers like violent crime and terrorism I have also seen how you have bravely carried on in the face of an unprecedented spike in threats targeting a range of public officials across the country over the past three and a half years there has been an escalation of attacks on the Justice Department's career lawyers agents and other Personnel that go far beyond scrutiny criticism and legitimate and necessary oversight of our work these attacks have come in the form of conspir conspiracy theories dangerous falsehoods efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out and threats of actual violence through your work you have made clear that the justice department will not be intimidated by these attacks but it is dangerous and outrageous that you have to endure them it is dangerous to Target and intimidate individual employees of this department solely for doing their jobs and it is outrageous that you have to face these unfounded attacks because you are doing what is right and upholding the rule of law you deserve better you deserve gratitude for the noble and difficult work you do you deserve recognition for the integrity and skill with which you do that work you deserve to be honored the work you do every day makes a difference and the way you do that work makes clear that the public servants of the Department of Justice do not Bend to politics and that they will not break Under [Applause] Pressure the choices you make in every investigation in every filing in every trial in everything you do to ensure the fair and impartial application of the law make this department and our democracy worthy of the public we serve and for that you deserve respect as I hope you already know you have mine wholehearted you also have my promise that nothing will ever stop me from defending this department [Applause] and defending the extraordinary people who work here I came back to doj as attorney general believing that our Norms are some of the most powerful tools we have to ensure our adherence to the rule of law having now served as attorne general for the past three and a half years I continue to believe deeply that our Norms matter now more than ever to our department into our democracy I also believe now more than ever that the most important resources the justice department has are the dedication and integrity of the people who work here as we wrote in the preface to the first edition of the principles of federal prosecution quote important though these principles are to the proper operation of our federal prosecutorial system the success of that system must rely ultimately on the character integrity sensitivity and competence of those men and women who are selected to represent the public interest in the Federal Criminal Justice process it is with their efforts that the purposes of these principles will be achieved close quote I know that many of you have heard me talk about why the work of the justice department is so important to me personally I've often shared that I wanted to give back to the country and to the system of laws that took my grandparents in and protected them when they had nowhere else to go that protection is what distinguishes America from so many other countries the protection of law the rule of law is the foundation of our system of government our democracy relies on an independent law law enforcement agency the Department of Justice to ensure those protections and critically our democracy depends on people who dedicate themselves and their careers to ensuring those protections people like all of you protecting the rule of law is the obligation of every generation of public servants at the United States Department of Justice in this time and place that responsibility is yours and it is mine I know we are up to it I am grateful to each of you for your commitment to this department to the Norms that sustain it and to the people we all serve thank you [Applause] we've just been watching attorney general Merck Garland speaking to Department of Justice employees about escalating attacks and threats on doj officials he's also vowing to not allow the Department of Justice to be used as a political weapon and expressing gratitude to those workers for the quote Noble work you do saying quote our Norms matter now more than ever