Decades after playing a key role in the investigation into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing and eventual prosecution of the attackers, now-U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland arrived in Oklahoma this weekend in advance of a Monday ceremony marking 26 years since the deadly blast.
Garland is scheduled to deliver remarks at the remembrance at 8:45 a.m. Monday, which will be streamed liveat the memorial's website.
Garland was a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice at the time of the bombing, and arrived in Oklahoma City shortly after the bombing and led the investigative and then prosecutorial efforts.
At the time, the bombing, which killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, was the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, remaining so until the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Conspirators Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were convicted in the attack, with McVeigh, the ringleader, put to death in 2001. Nichols is serving 161 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
McVeigh was driven by white supremacy and an intense hatred of the federal government. Garland has cited his experience in handling the bombing and other domestic terrorism cases in stressing the importance of bringing to justice the pro-Trump extremists who launched the deadly insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.
