Attorney General Merrick Garland ‘cries like kid’? Not in this video

A video purports to show Attorney General Merrick Garland breaking down in tears after a conflict. But anyone who clicks "play" expecting the confrontation will find themselves disappointed.

"Garland CRIES LIKE KID After Taylor Greene Calls Out STUPID 'Trump's Arraignment'... Gets Ovation," read the caption of a July 7 Facebook video. 

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

(Screenshot from Facebook.)

The video does not show Garland crying. He does not appear once in the 11-minute video. 

The video is a clip from a June 13 hearing led by House Republicans. The hearing — which Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., described as a "field hearing" — focused on the investigations and prosecutions linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. 

Gaetz is the first person shown in the Facebook video. He finishes his remarks to one unidentified witness, then moves to introduce his colleague, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

"Ms. Greene has invited a guest here that she would like to question," he said, as the camera shifts to Greene. "Ms. Greene, you’re recognized." 

Greene thanked the witnesses for attending the hearing. 

"It’s so heavy on my heart that we’re doing this today, when President Trump is being arraigned," she said. The June 13 hearing was held the same day as Trump’s arraignment in Miami, where the former president pleaded not guilty to 37 counts in a case focused on federal documents he took to Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, resort. 

The Facebook video received renewed attention following Trump’s third indictment Aug. 1, which is related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The video had 25,000 views as of Aug. 3. 

During the hearing, Greene welcomed a witness, Tayler Hansen, who said he was an independent journalist at the Capitol on Jan. 6 "to document what I believed was going to be left-wing violence." 

Featured Fact-check

Threads posts

stated on October 26, 2024 in a Threads post

Four Florida counties had “zero results” Oct. 26, and “something underhanded might be happening.”

The people who stormed the Capitol were Trump’s supporters, many who wore pro-Trump clothes and waved Trump-branded flags and paraphernalia. The claim that left-wing activists incited the violence at the Capitol has been repeatedly debunked. 

Hansen shared his version of the events that happened on Jan. 6 and said that he was never questioned by the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack. 

After his testimony, another lawmaker is recognized, and the clip of the House hearing cuts off. The Facebook video’s final minutes feature a drawing tutorial.

A caption claimed a video showed Garland crying after a confrontation with Greene related to Trump’s arraignment.

It does not show Garland crying. He does not appear once in the 11-minute video. 

We rate this claim False.