Comments by "wily wascal" (@wilywascal2024) on "Haberman on Trump's letter: He doesn't care if he seems desperate" video.
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Merrick Garland: "Trump and Congressional Republicans screwed me out of a seat on the Supreme Court...that's why now as AG I can't prosecute them for the many crimes they've committed!"
Merrick Garland’s House Testimony Demonstrated the Failure of His Hyper-Cautious Approach to His Job
Despite Garland’s many efforts to not appear political by declining to investigate Trump and his cronies for possible crimes and by using DOJ resources to actively protect Trump from civil liability, Republicans are still portraying him as the most political attorney general in history.
The other weakness of Garland’s timid approach was on full view during his opening statement and responses to Democratic members of Congress. “The essence of the rule of law is that like cases are treated alike. That there not be one rule for Democrats and another for Republicans; one rule for friends, another for foes,” Garland stated grandly. But by declining to investigate Trump and his associates, Garland is enabling further attacks on our democracy. (While proving inequity by putting Republicans above the law.)
Crucially, the two parties are not the same. Garland’s standard sets up a false equivalency between the Democratic Party and a political party whose national leader, Donald Trump, incited and celebrated a violent assault on our nation’s Capitol to overthrow the results of a free and fair election and who continues to portray the insurrection as a glorious “protest.” To that end, in the middle of the attorney general’s testimony, Trump issued a statement highlighting Garland’s feebleness at failing to even investigate the organizers and leaders of the Jan. 6 events, declaring “the insurrection took place on November 3, Election Day. January 6 was the Protest!”
Garland’s efforts to depoliticize the DOJ have proved to be an abdication of his responsibility to protect the rule of law. Take just a few examples: Garland’s failure to reconsider the obstruction of justice case against the former president, his deferral of an investigation of possible financial crimes by Trump and his organization to local prosecutors in New York City and Westchester, his use of the DOJ to protect Trump from defamation allegations, and his deferral of a soliciting of voter fraud felony probe in Georgia to local prosecutors there. By abdicating his responsibility, Garland is also opening the door for Trump to commit these possibly criminal abuses all over again, this time with the full support of the Republican Party, and maybe ultimately return to power.
--Mark Stern
"Try as he may, Merrick Garland cannot perform boring independence fast enough to outrun GOP claims that he’s a wild-eyed, violent socialist. And while the GOP currently exists only to cast everything you thought you believed into doubt, the real endgame is vigilantism. The endgame is to ensure that people mistrust government, election systems, school boards, (teachers, health care officials) the media, and the justice system enough to lend a hand in their destruction."
--Dahlia Lithwick
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