WASHINGTON — US President-elect Joe Biden has decided to nominate Judge Merrick Garland as attorney general, a long-awaited decision that moved toward completion on Wednesday as it became apparent that Democrats were on the brink of winning control of the Senate. The announcement of the attorney general, along with other senior leaders of the Justice Department, is expected to be made as soon as Thursday as Biden moves closer to filling the remaining seats in his Cabinet before assuming power on Jan. 20. Biden has selected Lisa Monaco, a former homeland security adviser in the Obama administration who has become a close aide to Biden, to be the deputy attorney general, according to a person familiar with the decision.

The president-elect has selected Vanita Gupta, who served as principal deputy assistant attorney general and led the civil rights division at the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama, to be associate attorney general, and Kristen Clarke, the president and executive director of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, to be assistant attorney general for civil rights, the person said. Garland was chosen by Biden for attorney general over former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and former acting attorney general Sally Yates, the two other finalists for the position. While Garland has been a top contender for weeks, concerns about the vacancy his selection would create on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia raised alarm bells among Biden and many advisers who believed Senate Republicans would block any nomination to that seat. But with Democrats poised to control the Senate after two Georgia runoff races, those concerns were allayed. — Courtesy CNN