DAYS AFTER A HUGE BOMB AT A FEDERAL BUILDING KILLED 168 PEOPLE IN OKLAHOMA CITY MERRICK B. GARLAND WAS ON THE GROUND. SOT: Garland “We certainly had no idea that something like this was going to happen... It was a terrible scene on television. And everybody who goes into public service wants to help.” GARLAND WAS THEN THE HIGHEST-RANKING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL AT THE SCENE OF THE DEADLIEST ATTACK ON AMERICAN SOIL YET. SOT: Garland We drove directly to the bomb site and it really looked like a war zone. You could see broken glass all over. You could see windows broken as you got closer and closer to the building. You could see crumbled bricks on the ground. And then we finally got to the site and the site was lit up like, you know, just like the sun in the middle of the day. The worst part was being told where the kids had been... GARLAND SPENT WEEKS RUNNING AN INVESTIGATION OUT OF A COMMAND CENTER BLOCKS FROM THE BLAST SITE, COORDINATING THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE AND SUPERVISING THE EVENTUAL PROSECUTION. [SOT from press conference] THE OKLAHOMA CASE WAS THE CENTERPIECE OF A STRING OF FEDERAL PROSECUTIONS AT THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT THAT HELPED SHAPE HIS CENTRIST APPROACH TO THE LAW. AND ULTIMATELY LED TO HIS APPOINTMENT AT THE COURT OF APPEALS IN 1997. NATPOP OF HIS 1997 NOMINATION? NOW NEARLY TWO DECADES LATER, GARLAND’S ROLE IN OKLAHOMA CITY STILL CAPTIVATES THE PRESIDENT.