Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday condemned attacks fueled by conspiracy theories and disinformation against Justice Department employees.

Facing persistent, baseless claims that his department has been weaponized against Republicans, he stressed the DOJ is guided by policies, principles and norms aimed at ensuring the law is applied without bias.

Garland delivered the remarks during the annual U.S. attorneys conference at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.

“Over the past 3½ 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,” Garland said. “These attacks have come in the form of conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence.”

Garland said it was “dangerous” for people to target Justice Department officials and “outrageous” that they face unfounded attacks for doing their job of upholding the law.

“You deserve better,” Garland told the U.S. attorneys.

Most notably, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have routinely attacked Garland’s DOJ for charging Trump in Florida with taking and retaining classified documents after he left the White House and in Washington for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty in both cases. A judge dismissed the Florida case, but the Justice Department is appealing the ruling.

Trump and his allies have claimed, without providing evidence, that those prosecutions are politically motivated and also accused Garland, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris of orchestrating state prosecutions against Trump in New York and Georgia. Garland and the White House have denied those allegations.

Garland, who did not mention Trump during his speech, noted that 45 years ago he worked on the first edition of the Justice Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution, which provides guidance to prosecutors about investigations, charges, plea agreements and sentencing recommendations.

But “the core” of the document, Garland said, is about factors prosecutors may not consider: race, religion, gender, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, and political affiliation or activities.

And with 54 days until the presidential election, Garland said prosecutors and agents may never make decisions about investigations or prosecutions to help or hurt a candidate or political party.

“There is not one rule for friends and another for foes, one rule for the powerful and another for the powerless, one rule for the rich and another for the poor, one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans, or different rules depending on one’s race or ethnicity,” the attorney general said. “To the contrary, we have only one rule: We follow the facts and apply the law in a way that respects the Constitution and protects civil liberties.”

Adhering to those principles is “foundational to our democracy,” Garland said.

“Our norms are a premise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon, and our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,” he added.

Garland said that over the course of his career, he has seen those norms become “woven into the fabric of the Justice Department and were sustained by its dedicated career employees.”

“Protecting the rule of law is the obligation of every generation of public servants at the United States Department of Justice,” the attorney general said. “At this time and place, that responsibility is yours, and it is mine. I know we are up to it.”

Trump's campaign blasted Garland's comments, accusing the Justice Department of targeting the former president "in an unconstitutional and unprecedented Witch Hunt."

"The disgraceful conduct of Attorney General Merrick Garland has done tremendous damage to a once great institution," said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung.