Attorney General Merrick Garland attends the United for Justice International Conference in Lviv, Ukraine on Friday.
Claire Harbage/NPR
hide caption
toggle caption
Claire Harbage/NPR
Attorney General Merrick Garland attends the United for Justice International Conference in Lviv, Ukraine on Friday.
Claire Harbage/NPR
On his way to Ukraine for an unannounced visit last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke about the upholding the rule of law inside the U.S. and overseas in an exclusive interview with NPR.
Garland, who traveled late last week to Ukraine for a conference focused on justice and human rights, said he is supporting an effort to hold Russia accountable for war crimes. While in Lviv, Ukraine, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and signed an agreement to promote information sharing about Russian atrocities that have targeted maternity hospitals, schools, and other civilian dwellings since the start of the unprovoked conflict one year ago.
“It’s very important that people whose loved ones are killed or disappeared have some way of finding out what happened to them,” he told NPR.
In the interview he also spoke about the special counsels investigating former President Donald Trump and current President Joe Biden — and about his upcoming two-year anniversary as attorney general.
Interview Highlights
On Garland’s personal motivations for focusing on war crimes Russia is…