Biden introduces Merrick Garland as attorney general pick: ‘Your loyalty is not to me’

President-elect Joe Biden formally selected Merrick Garland to be his attorney general on Thursday, tasking the long-serving jurist with the responsibility of restoring “the honor, the integrity, the independence” of a beleaguered justice department.

Speaking a day after a violent mob stormed the US Capitol, Biden said Garland, whose 2016 supreme court nomination was blocked by Senate Republicans, would be the “people’s lawyer”, drawing a sharp contrast with the way Donald Trump interpreted the job.

“You won’t work for me. You are not the president or the vice-president’s lawyer,” Biden said in remarks from Wilmington, Delaware, that started by denouncing the violence that marked “one of the darkest days in the history of our nation”.

“Your loyalty is not to me. It’s to the law, to the constitution to the people of this nation.”

The president-elect called Garland, a judge on the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, “one of the most respected jurists of our time”. He would be, Biden continued, an impartial administrator of justice and not the “personal attorney to the president” and, alongside his other nominees to lead the department, would restore Americans’ faith in the rule of law and seek to build a more equitable system of justice.

In his remarks, Garland cited the founding ethos of the department – equal justice under the law – and stressed his commitment to restoring integrity and morale after a tumultuous four years of intense politicization under the Trump administration.

“As everyone who watched yesterday’s events in Washington now understands, if they did not understand before, the rule of law is not just some lawyer’s turn of phrase,” Garland said. “It is the very foundation of our democracy. The essence of the rule of law is that like cases are treated alike.”

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Choosing a judge to fill the role of attorney general is unusual, and perhaps reflects Biden’s shifting political fortunes in recent days. On Tuesday, Democrats won a pair of runoffs in Georgia, giving Democrats control of the Senate, with Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote. With their slim majority, Democratic senators could overcome any potential opposition by Republicans to his nominee to replace Garland on the DC circuit court.

Garland was nominated by Barack Obama to fill the supreme court vacancy left by the death of Antonin Scalia in February 2016. In an unprecedented move, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, refused to consider Garland’s nomination, pointing to the proximity of the November presidential election to argue that voters should decide who fills the seat.

Nearly five years later, Senate Republicans will have to consider his nomination, albeit for a remarkably different role. Like Obama, Biden is depending on Garland’s reputation as a moderate and affable appellate judge to ensure his confirmation. In his remarks, Biden predicted Garland would be confirmed with bipartisan support based on his conversations with senators.

As attorney general, Garland would face weighty decisions over whether to pursue investigations into Trump, former and current members of his administration and his associates that some Democrats are demanding. Biden has made clear he is reluctant to prosecute a former president.

During his appearance, Biden refused to comment on growing calls for Trump to be removed from office after the occupation of the US Capitol by rioters loyal to the president. “Our president is not above the law,” Biden, who will be sworn in as president in less than two weeks, said during his remarks on Thursday.

Garland may also face questions about how he will handle the tax investigation of Biden’s son Hunter being conducted by the US attorney in Delaware. Republicans, still furious over the department’s special counsel investigation into ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia, have demanded the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the matter.

Democrats roundly praised the nomination of Garland. But Biden, who vowed to assemble the most diverse cabinet in American history, had faced calls from advocates to name a Black or Latino attorney general with a background in civil rights.

Biden on Thursday also named his picks for a slate of other top justice department officials: Lisa Monaco, a former homeland security adviser to Obama, as deputy attorney general; Vanita Gupta, head of department’s civil rights division under Obama, as the associate attorney general; and Kristen Clarke, a civil rights lawyer, as assistant attorney general for civil rights at the department.