...INSTEAD of using their own power (inherent contempt) to compel testimony and documents.
Turning that back around to Garland is just nonsense.
Congress has the responsibility to inform, and the Justice Dept. is charged with winning in court. Prosecuting Meadows for contempt, or anyone else Congress passed the buck on doesn't do anything but gain access to the documents and communications Congress sought.
But you have to ask why DOJ felt they needed to make convictions on just misdemeanors for Navarro or Bannon? It was to compel release of those documents and communications THEY felt were necessary to prosecute the crimes contained within.
It's not the role of the DOJ to further political aims of the Jan. 6 committee in informing the public about crimes and abuses surrounding the insurrection. The DOJ PROSECUTES crimes and rarely explains anything outside of what they convict people for. It doesn't take much to recognize that political aims and effective investigation and prosecution don't always mesh.
Moreover, Congress and the DOJ aren't coordinating their work outside of sharing info on perps, and that's as it should be. Their work is based on the law, and what it takes to get convictions. DOJ is about proving a crime they can defend in court; Congress is about informing us, as they intend to do this month in hearings. One has an obligation to actually succeed in court, the other has the obligation to tell us what happened. (see Iran Contra and Ollie North)
Meadows isn't off the hook just because they didn't arrest him on a contempt charge. DOJ moved forward on Navarro because his arrest comes with the documents he's withheld that include communications with Trump, Meadows, and others in the plot to overturn the results of the election, as well as communications surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection. That's the target of this prosecution, not snatching Meadows up on a petty charge, but gaining evidence which ties him to Trump.
Congress couldn't compel the release of what Meadows communicated with then-Pres. Trump because the OLC statue (no matter what the committee is now arguing) shields those discussions. Navarro spent months flailing around in courts trying to keep documents from the committee claiming they were privileged. He lost all of those court battles and got himself indicted and arrested.
Now the DOJ can finally have access to obviously incriminating communications between Navarro and the former president. That's the point of the arrest; to gain access to the documents Congress declined to obtain themselves, or couldn't because of claims of 'privileged' conversations with then-president Trump.
Yes, he's out on a lesser charge, although facing up to two years without early release in a federal prison. But that won't stop the DOJ from bringing charges on whatever they find in the material he was keeping hidden. That is basically how the Jan. 6 committee was proceeding. Get the documents and show culpability.
Navarro and Meadows have different situations regarding privilege. As written, executive privilege applies to "senior advisers" or "immediate advisers." Navarro is a trade adviser, and not covered by the statute, at least as far as DOJ and courts have ruled.
It's an uphill battle with Meadows on contempt, facing a result in court that the DOJ must feel is fruitless, not worth losing that fight, especially if they don't think they need his documents to proceed with their investigation - which would be the entire point of a contempt prosecution, obtaining documents and communications which incriminate, not just arresting Meadows on a lesser contempt charge.
This is clearly an active DOJ investigation which is reaching into the Oval Office for accountability. Whether someone thinks it's moving fast enough for them, or hasn't ensnared Trump yet doesn't change that fact.
This indictment and arrest has accomplished what Congress FAILED to do when they punted their responsibility to the DOJ, refused to employ inherent contempt and squeeze the perps themselves. It loosened incriminating evidence from Navarro which should directly incriminate Trump in the plot to overturn the election - Navarro's part involving coercing Pence to refuse to certify election results.
Inherent contempt WAS the point when Congress had that option and decided against it. It's not DOJ's role to fill out that political obligation. They are in the business of winning court cases, not making political hay for the Jan. 6 committee.
= new reply since forum marked as read
