U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has picked Merrick Garland, the federal judge who never got a confirmation hearing as Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee five years ago, as his choice for attorney general, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The nomination of Garland, who currently serves as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, will resonate with Democrats after Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell prevented him from even getting a confirmation hearing for the high court in 2016.
Biden is also picking Lisa Monaco for deputy attorney general and Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general, according to people familiar with those decisions. Monaco spent almost two decades at the Justice Department and was homeland security adviser in the Obama administration. Gupta headed the department’s Civil Rights Division under President Obama.