President Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court this morning. Garland was a high-ranking official in the U.S. Department of Justice at the time of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and oversaw the day-to-day operation of the investigation and prosecution. Timothy McVeigh’s lead defense attorney Stephen Jones said based on the merits of Garland’s judicial record, there’s no reason for the Senate to vote against his confirmation.
JONES: “If, on the other hand, you’re looking for a narrow political opportunity, and you want to hedge your bets and hope that a Republican is elected president, that’s a triumph of hope over experience, and it may not work the way you think it will.”
Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe is one of seven sitting Republican U.S. Senators who voted for Garland’s confirmation to the D-C Circuit Court of Appeals in 1997. Both Inhofe and the state’s junior Republican Senator James Lankford said last week they want the next president to fill the vacancy.