Biden nominates Judge Merrick Garland as US Attorney General

US President-elect Joe Biden has formally announced appellate court Judge Merrick Garland as his nominee for the post of the US attorney general.

Biden announced the key nominations for the Department of Justice on Thursday. Besides Garland, Lisa Monaco, the homeland security adviser to former President Barack Obama, has been appointed to the post of deputy attorney general.

In 2016, then-President Barack Obama nominated Garland to serve on the US Supreme Court, but his nomination languished in the Republican-controlled Senate at the end of the former president's term.

Garland is a Department of Justice veteran and independent jurist on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

A consensus-builder, Judge Garland has worked under Democratic and Republican administrations. He led investigations into some of the most high-profile cases and crises in modern history, including the "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, and coordinated the government's response to the Oklahoma City bombing, said the transition team.

"Judge Garland's nomination underscores the President-elect's commitment to restore integrity and the rule of law, boost the morale of the dedicated career professionals at DOJ, and build a more equitable justice system that serves all Americans," Biden's team said in a statement announcing Garland's nomination.

Besides Garland, Biden picked Lisa Monaco as Deputy Attorney General, former Acting Assistant Attorney General Vta Gupta as Associate Attorney General. Kristen Clarke, a veteran of the Department of Justice, has been nominated to serve as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights.

( With inputs from ANI )