The relationship between President Donald Trump and his Attorney General Bill Barr has had many dramatic twists, including the time the president declared that he was the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and not Barr.  

President-elect Joe Biden is clearly seeking to publically declare a very different relationship with his attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge who was famously denied a vote by the U.S. Senate when he was nominated in 2016 for the Supreme Court.

Attorney Michael Koenig, a partner with the firm Hinckley Allen and a former prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice, told Capital Tonight that Biden couldn’t have chosen a better candidate for this tumultuous time.

“Merrick Garland should go through 100-0, the politics of the time won’t allow that, but I’d put it at 70 or 75 (votes) if I had to put money on it,” Koenig said.

Koenig, who still has close friends at the Department of Justice, said it was problematic that there was “very little sunlight” between President Trump and A.G. Barr. 

That will not be the case, he says, with Biden and Garland.

“(Garland) is independent. He doesn’t have a close relationship with Biden,” explained Koenig.  “It’s like dad is in the room now. He’s going to restore order and discipline, which the Justice Department needs these days.”