1/Today, AG Garland is with the Senate Judiciary Cmte for an oversight hearing, a restored norm. When Sen Durbin convened one in 2021, it was the first before the SJC since 2017. During the Trump administration, AG's simply declined to show up in the GOP-controlled Senate.

2/This hearing comes on the heels of the House Weaponization Subcmte’s lackluster first session & overlaps the annual CPAC meeting. Expect these political bookends to make today even more fact free & political than usual-complaints about the cruel witchhunt against Trump.

3/But it’s incredibly important for the Attorney General to show up. It's the job. The Constitution gives Congress oversight of the executive branch. Even if some members stoop to aggressive & disingenuous tactics, Garland’s appearance breathes more life into the rule of law.

4/Garland would likely prefer to discuss work being done in parts of DOJ, like the civil rights division, which just settled yet another case as part of its national redlining initiative (when lenders illegally avoid providing services to people living in communities of color.)

5/The long & well-documented history of denying Black & brown people the credit they need to buy homes, when it is available to similarly situated white people, has had a generational impact on the ability of those families to buy homes and build wealth. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-secures-9-million-park-national-bank-address-lending-discrimination…

6/We want DOJ to hold those who are most responsible for 1-6 accountable for what they have put the country through. We want to make sure they can never do it again. But there is also other good work going on at DOJ, like this important civil rights.

7/Even as we worry about whether the country will fully recover from the insurrection, we can draw encouragement from successes in other areas where justice has been elusive, but progress is being made. Don't let Trump destroy your faith in democracy. https://joycevance.substack.com/p/the-attorney-general-and-the-oversight?publication_id=607357&isFreemail=true…