Attorney General Merrick Garland has told officials he plans to watch the hearing

Attorney General Merrick Garland has told officials that he intends to watch as much of tonight’s Jan. 6 committee hearing as he can.

Garland and the Justice Department have been playing a key role in investigating the insurrection at the Capitol. CNN reported earlier this week that top Democratic leaders in Washington and across the country fear that Donald Trump might be running for president again by the time Garland decides whether to prosecute him and others in his orbit for the Jan. 6 insurrection — and that any action by President Biden’s Justice Department could be cast by Republicans as little more than a political vendetta.

Two dozen leading Democrats in Washington and across the country tell CNN that Garland may have missed his moment to bring criminal charges against top Trump administration officials before it would get caught up in the 2024 presidential campaign jockeying set to begin later this year, after the midterm elections.

Garland, a longtime federal judge with a quiet demeanor, has vowed to keep politics out of decision-making at the Justice Department, though he says he is not avoiding political cases. And Justice officials say they still have plenty of time in President Biden’s administration should they decide to bring prosecutions for any crimes connected to the effort to overturn the election results.

The Justice Department has traditionally held to a 60-day window before Election Days to hold off on political prosecutions, which would put a cutoff date in early September. However, that usually has applied only to people who are on the ballot in the upcoming election.

Justice officials tell CNN they believe that moving slowly and saying little bolsters their credibility, something they’ll need as they investigate people associated with the 2020 Trump campaign. Even so, prosecutors have charged more than 800 defendants as part of the largest investigation in US Justice Department history.