President Joe Biden’s nominee for U.S. attorney general, Merrick Garland, said during the first day of his confirmation hearing on Monday that the attacks on federal courthouses in the Pacific Northwest may not qualify as domestic terrorism because the attacks happen at night when the court is closed.

“Let me ask you about assaults on federal property in places other than Washington, D.C. Portland for instance, Seattle,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) said. “Do you regard assaults on federal courthouses or other federal property as acts of domestic extremism, domestic terrorism?

For Merrick Garland, a well-regarded lawyer and federal judge — and onetime Supreme Court nominee — there was a critical condition under which he’d accept the nomination of attorney general under President Biden.

“Merrick’s acceptance comment was, ‘President-elect Biden has guaranteed me independence,’” Earl Steinberg, a childhood friend of Garland, recalled from Biden and Garland’s Jan. 7 nomination announcement. “Then he choked up a little bit and said, ‘or I would not have accepted the nomination.’ That is classic Merrick.”

President Joe Biden’s attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, vowed on Monday to protect the integrity of the Justice Department from partisan influence, in an effort to restore confidence after President Donald Trump repeatedly sought to bend the department to his will. Trump, a Republican who lost to Biden in November, for years attacked Justice Department investigations of his 2016 campaign and Russian election interference as a “witch hunt” or a “hoax.”