"Attorney General Merrick Garland deliberated for weeks over whether to approve the application for a warrant to search former President Donald Trump’s Florida home..."

"... people familiar with the matter said....  The decision had been the subject of weeks of meetings between senior Justice Department and FBI officials, the people said.... The decision whether to pursue criminal charges promises to be a defining one for Mr. Garland, a former federal judge who, as a Justice Department staffer in the late 1970s, helped codify changes intended to restore trust in the institution and address presidential abuses of power. 'He’s both extremely careful and he understands the critical role of an attorney general in these circumstances,' said former Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, who was Mr. Garland’s boss when they served under President Bill Clinton. 'He appreciates the context in which this is occurring. I don’t think he considers politics at all, but I do think he recognizes the seriousness of actions against a former president.'... 'The only pressure I feel, and the only pressure that our line prosecutors feel, is to do the right thing,' Mr. Garland said earlier this year. ...  Inside the Justice Department, Mr. Garland is known by colleagues as a contemplative, by-the-book leader who, after roughly a year-and-a-half at the helm of the agency, has slowly begun to shed the cautious and consensus-based approach he followed as a federal judge for the more decisive posture expected of a law-enforcement officer...."

 
From "Merrick Garland Weighed Search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago for Weeks/Attorney general took his signature deliberative approach to the move; Justice Department asks judge not to unseal affidavit that provided basis for search" (Wall Street Journal).