Attorney General Merrick Garland on Tuesday stood up against Republican attacks, including that his Justice Department played a role in the New York criminal case that led to former President Donald Trump being convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

Garland called the allegation a “conspiracy theory” that “is an attack on the judicial process itself.”

“We do not control the Manhattan district attorney,” Garland told the House Judiciary Committee. “The Manhattan district attorney does not report to us. The Manhattan district attorney makes its own decisions about cases that he wants to bring under his state law.”

Garland’s explanation, however, did not satisfy Republican members of the panel. 

After Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked Garland if his department has communicated with the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County, Georgia, DA Fani Willis, Garland said Gaetz should make a formal request for the information he’s seeking. Trump has been indicted in Georgia over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, charges to which he has pleaded not guilty.

“But, see, here's the thing,” Gaetz said. “You come in here and you lodge this attack that it's a conspiracy theory that there is coordinated lawfare against Trump. And then when we say, ‘Fine, just give us the documents, give us the correspondence,’ and then if it's a conspiracy theory, that will be evident.

“But when you say, well, ‘We'll take your request and then we'll sort of work it through the DOJ's accommodation process,’ then you're actually advancing the very dangerous conspiracy theory that you're concerned about,” Gaetz continued.

A number of GOP lawmakers pointed to the fact that Matthew Colangelo, a former official in Garland’s Justice Department, left to work in the Manhattan DA’s office, including on the Trump case. Gaetz accused Garland of “dispatching” Colangelo to New York. 

“Do you know how he ended up there?” Gaetz asked.

“I assume he applied for a job there and got the job,” Garland answered. “I can tell you I had nothing to do with it.”

Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., said Colangelo’s job change was “odd.” McClintock also claimed: “For the first time in American history, we do have a presidential administration working to put its opponent in jail. That is a fact.”

President Joe Biden has repeatedly insisted he has had no input into Trump’s four criminal cases.

Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, said Tuesday’s hearing was “not an attempt to conduct real robust oversight of the Department of Justice, but rather an attempt to flog the Biden administration's attorney general and to create an outlet to spew more ridiculous conspiracy theories.”

“Extreme MAGA Republicans will use every tool they have to persecute, harass, and impugn anyone who dares hold Donald Trump accountable,” Nadler said.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that instead of celebrating that “12 ordinary New Yorkers” were able to weigh the evidence and deliver a verdict “involving one of the most powerful people in the country,” Republicans would rather “denigrate the whole system. They would tear it down.”

Trying to bat down GOP accusations of a Justice Department weaponized against Republicans, Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., noted that Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas — both Democrats — have been indicted on federal corruption charges and Hunter Biden, the president's son, is on trial on gun and false-statement charges in a Delaware federal court.

“The Justice Department follows the facts and the law,” Garland said in response to Cohen’s comments. “ … We do not allow the political party or the ethnicity or the religion or the race or the wealth or the influence of someone we are investigating to make a difference in our charging decisions.”

Garland also defended his decision last month to recommend President Biden assert executive privilege to block the release of audio from his interview with special counsel Robert Hur about his handling of classified documents.

The attorney general argued that his department already provided the written transcript produced by Hur’s office, adding the release of the audio could hinder future investigations.

“It could influence witnesses' answers if they thought the audio of their law enforcement interviews would be broadcast to Congress and the public,” Garland testified Tuesday.

The House Judiciary and Oversight committees each voted to recommend Garland be held in contempt for not turning over the recording, for which a subpoena was issued. The full House has not voted on referring the matter to Garland’s own Justice Department.

“I view contempt as a serious matter, but I will not jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations,” Garland said. “I will not be intimidated, 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 democracy.”

Republicans on the committee argued the audio is needed to determine whether they match the transcript and support Hur’s conclusion that Joe Biden should not be prosecuted even if charges could be brought. 

Garland said Hur had “every interest in ensuring that the transcript that he produced in order to do his investigation would be accurate” and there is no reason to believe the transcript had been altered.

But Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., said: “We're unaware because we haven't heard the tapes. We don't know if they match up.”

Justice Department policy protects a sitting president from being charged with crimes, but Hur said, even if he could, he would not recommend prosecuting Biden because the evidence did not prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, adding, “Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” comments Republicans have seized upon.

The attorney general also testified false claims that have spread have fueled threats to the judiciary, prosecutors, law enforcement agents and members of Congress have “spiked significantly.”

“And in some cases have accelerated from threats to actual violence,” he added. 

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly reported the state where Donald Trump has been indicted over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.