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Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to use his farewell speech Thursday to rally Justice Department employees to defend the department’s independence and protect its mission.

Garland took office in 2021 promising to restore the department’s norms, which focus on distancing itself from the White House and Congress and try to insulate investigations from politics.

“We make that commitment not because independence is necessarily constitutionally required, but because it is the only way to ensure that our law enforcement decisions are free from partisan influence,” Garland is expected to say, according to excerpts of his prepared resignation speech.

But Garland is ending his tenure with Democrats angry that investigations into Donald Trump ended up stretching past the 2024 election and was ultimately dismissed after Trump’s re-election, with Republicans arguing that Garland and the Biden administration weaponized the Justice Department by prosecuting Trump.

Garland plans to defend the work of career DOJ employees who have received threats for working on politically sensitive investigations and who have become possible targets of retaliation by the incoming Trump administration.

“I know that over the years some have wrongly criticized you and said that you let politics influence your decision-making. That criticism often came from people with opposing political views, each making diametrically opposed points about the same set of facts,” Garland’s prepared remarks say.

“I know that you have faced unprovoked attacks just to do your job, while also putting your lives on the line to protect our country from a variety of foreign and domestic threats. And I know that prayers about a lot of you right now. But before I go, I have one more thing to ask of you. It’s to remember who you are and why you came to work here in the first place and patriots who swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.”

Garland’s farewell event Thursday at the Justice Department will also include remarks from outgoing FBI Director Christopher Wray, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar.