Attorney General Merrick Garland will push back on efforts to hold him in contempt. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Last month, Trump claimed in a fundraising email that Biden's DOJ authorized the FBI to kill him during the 2022 search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort, in reference to an unsealed FBI document regarding the search. Trump was not home when the FBI executed the search.
"WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the 'Icebox,' and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden's DOJ, in their illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE," Trump also wrote on Truth Social.
Trump's legal team also made a court filing citing the use of force authorization by the DOJ.
But the use of force that Trump's team cited in the court filing is the standard language used by the DOJ for years, and the same language was used when FBI agents searched President Biden's home for classified documents.
Garland will say in his testimony that the effort to hold him in contempt "comes as baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods are being spread about the FBI's law enforcement operations."
Special Counsel Jack Smith said Trump's team omitted the key word "only" in the filing in late May that led to Trump's accusations that the FBI was prepared to kill him.
"Although Trump included the warrant and Operations Form as exhibits to his motion, the motion misquoted the Operations Form by omitting the crucial word 'only' before 'when necessary,' without any ellipsis reflecting the omission," Smith wrote. "The motion also left out language explaining that deadly force is necessary only 'when the officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person.'"
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Trump made false claims that the Justice Department authorized the FBI to kill him during the 2022 search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort. (Getty Images)
He said it also comes as individual career agents and prosecutors "have been singled out just for doing their jobs" and at a time "when we are seeing heinous threats of violence being directed at the Justice Department's career public servants."
Garland says these "repeated attacks" on the DOJ's are "unprecedented and unfounded" and that the attacks will not influence the department's decision-making.
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"I view contempt as a serious matter," Garland says. "But I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations."
"I will not be intimidated," he adds. "And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy."
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