From the daily newsletter: a report from Washington. Plus: the coming sale of TikTok; Susan B. Glasser on “the Trump effect”; and remembering David Lynch.

After a tumultuous tenure clouded by two failed criminal prosecutions against the incoming president, Attorney General Merrick Garland is leaving the Justice Department the same way he came in: trying to defend it against political attacks.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said "norms" determine the principles upon which the Justice Department operates while bidding farewell to staffers after leading it over the past four years.

Garland’s remarks come as President-elect Donald Trump is set to be sworn in on Monday. The president-elect has been critical of the DOJ claiming some of the cases brought against him were politically motivated.

Cannon’s ruling stated that Garland, the Department of Justice, Smith, and “all of their officers, agents, and employees, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with such individuals” could not publish any part of the report until three days after the Eleventh Circuit ruled on the case.

With special counsel Jack Smith expected to release a final report on the investigation in the coming days, critics of Attorney General Merrick Garland, including some inside the Justice Department ... to defraud the United States and obstruct an official ...

The Department of Justice discloses a plan to share the special counsel’s findings before the president-elect takes office.

Washington — The Justice Department can publicly release special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump’s 2020 election interference case, a federal judge said Monday in the latest ruling in a court dispute over the highly anticipated document days before Trump is set to reclaim the White House.

The president-elect's lawyers said they had a chance to review the document prepared by Jack Smith between Jan. 3 and 6.

In a filing, Garland outlined his intentions to publicize the final memo on Trump’s 2020 election subversion case, which constitutes “volume one” of Smith’s report, while handing the controversial details of Trump’s classified documents case to the chair and ranking member of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

Jan. 8 (UPI) --The Justice Department said Wednesday in a court filing that Attorney General Merrick Garland intends to release Special Counsel Jack Smith's report on the alleged felony criminal ...

The indictment alleged Trump conspired to defraud the United States ... the Justice Department, there was a debate about whether there was enough evidence to pursue charges against Trump. Garland ...