NYT: Merrick Garland news flash!!

[SoonerPride]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/21/world/europe/merrick-garland-ukraine-war-crimes.html

The U.S. attorney general visits Ukraine to discuss Russian war crimes.

WASHINGTON — The United States attorney general, Merrick Garland, is making an unannounced trip to Ukraine on Tuesday to discuss the prosecution of Russians for war crimes, according to his spokesman.

Mr. Garland plans to meet with Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Iryna Venediktova, “to discuss U.S. and international efforts to help Ukraine identify, apprehend and prosecute those individuals involved in war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” the spokesman, Anthony D. Coley, said in an email.

The meeting is expected to last about an hour, and the two are expected to discuss technical, forensic and legal support that Mr. Garland’s department might be able to provide prosecutors in Ukraine, department officials said.

snip

Well, I'm glad he has so much free time on his hands.

[Lovie777]

1. K & R . . .

I think Garland can walk and chew gum at the same time.

[gab13by13]

2. Looks like he won't be watching the most important hearing by the select committee.

I hope someone tapes it for him.

[agingdem]

28. this is a joke, right?

here's the thing..the J6 committee's sole purpose is to tell the story of January 6..Merrick Garland is tasked with terrorism (both foreign and domestic,) civil rights, tax laws, illegal drugs, gun and explosives violations (ATF), organized and violent crime, immigration, overseeing the FBI, Federal Bureau of Prisons, the US Marshall Service...and sedition and insurrection...

Garland is doing just fine..

[MarineCombatEngineer]

38. What a ridiculous statement.

You think he doesn't have access to the internet in Ukraine?

[Funtatlaguy]

3. If he doesn't, our democracy will walk right out the door.

[brooklynite]

4. It IS sad that he doesn't have a staff and can only address one issue at a time, right?

[SoonerPride]

5. Or you know, he could just set up a Zoom call with Zelenskyy

[70sEraVet]

6. A phone call of support sends a message. A PERSONAL visit sends proof of COMMITMENT!

[SoonerPride]

8. Maybe Garland should sit in on the J6 Committee hearings instead of watching on TV then

Just a suggestion.

[70sEraVet]

10. Send your suggestion in to that Producer guy the Committee hired. The hearings aren't over yet!

[SoonerPride]

13. I was just taking your post on face value. If personal appearance shows commitment

I guess Garland ain't that committed to prosecuting the people responsible for J6 or he would be there in person.

You said it, not me.

[emulatorloo]

34. They said nothing like that. Enjoy yr posts, but it isnt right to put words in other people's mouths

[SoonerPride]

35. "A PERSONAL visit sends proof of COMMITMENT!"

Seems like I quoted him verbatim.

Garland should personally visit the J6 hearings instead of watching them on TV.

That would show proof of commitment.

[emulatorloo]

36. No, you twisted their words and misrepresented what they said in order to score false rhetorical

points. People here should argue in good faith.

[FoxNewsSucks]

40. It's the same, equally valid argument.

[Cha]

54. How much more Powerful to do it

in Person!

I bet it means a lot to Ukraine & Zelensky.

💙💛

[GoCubsGo]

30. And, it's not like the main character in the insurrection didn't get impeached the first time

for trying to extort Mr. Zelynskyy. I'm betting there's some dot-connecting going on here.

[Cha]

55. Excellent Point.. tY GCG!

💙💛

[Bucky]

62. LoL 😆😆😆

Thank you

I understand when people don't read past the headline. But it still surprises me when they're people who can't think beyond the headline

[jalan48]

9. Must be getting hot in DC.

[kentuck]

11. Maybe it is all connected...

....like RICO?

[GoCubsGo]

32. Yep. Trump was impeached for trying to extort this man.

And, now his country is being invaded by they guy who gives Trump his marching orders. I have no doubt it's all connected.

[gldstwmn]

58. That's the dream.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

12. A genocide is going on, perpetrated by Putin's forces.

The OP's comments are tone-deaf.

[SoonerPride]

14. Thanks!

I appreciate being insulted on DU.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

15. Back at you.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

18. Very ironic

[Raven]

17. I'm pretty sure Garland can do two things at the same time. I'm pretty sure he has

staff that can carry on while he's away. I'm pretty sure he has the technology to watch the J6 Committee hearings. I am very glad he's paying personal attention to the horrible Russian atrocities in Ukraine.

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

20. Announcing that the trip will be "unannounced" seems contradictory.

Aren't these kind of trips kept quiet until after they have occurred to keep the individual safe?

[bigtree]

21. that's a ridiculous complaint

Garland oversees prosecutors and investigators.

He doesn't actually prosecute the cases or personally investigate them.

But sure, let's run him down for doing one of his myriad jobs at the Justice Dept.

I absolutely hate these dirt dumb takes on the DOJ. This one is nothing but a weak attempt at disinformation, positing that Garland is taking time away from the Capitol invasion investigation. Really just a load of nonsense.

[SoonerPride]

23. His job at the DOJ is to prosecute war crimes for foreign wars in which the US is not a party?

Interesting.

Speaking of disinformation.

[bigtree]

25. another weak attempt to misinform

...this time with a strawman question.

"U.S. officials have previously said that the federal government will assist Ukraine's efforts to identify and prosecute war crimes that have taken place in the country since Russia invaded the region in late February."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/attorney-general-merrick-garland-makes-surprise-trip-ukraine-rcna34506


War Crimes and Accountability in Ukraine - United States Department of State
FPC Briefing
Beth Van Schaack, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice
Office of Global Criminal Justice
Wednesday, June 15, 2022

The United States has been very active in supporting a whole range of efforts towards accountability for these abuses. In addition to our multifaceted work on security assistance, on sanctions, on humanitarian assistance, et cetera, we are working with civil society actors and others to document abuses for future accountability purposes. We are supporting the Office of the Prosecutor General in her efforts to prepare war crimes files and cases, and some of those have been proceeding now in Ukrainian courts. We have also stood up a Conflict Observatory, which will be scouring open-source information, including satellite feeds and social media feeds, in order to bring together and then analyze data coming out of Ukraine and using some of the tools that are within the unique capacity of the United States to be able to collect and analyze.

My particular office is working closely with the Office of the Prosecutor General. We had a project in place prior to the February 24th invasion in which we were surging some experts who are veterans of the world’s international war crimes tribunals to the Office of the Prosecutor General in Kyiv to assist her, providing strategic guidance and operational support in pursuing war crimes cases. The office is very experienced – she had already launched a number of cases arising out of the Donbas and Crimea – but since the relaunch of the invasion on February 24th, the entire country of Ukraine has become an enormous crime base. And so the work ahead of her is extremely daunting. We have now pivoted and are starting to scale that work in order to make sure that she has the resources and expertise that she needs in order to bring these cases.

We are also launching through implementing partners from the civil society sector what are called Mobile Justice Teams. These individuals will be multidisciplinary – again, veterans of the war crimes tribunals, experienced investigators and prosecutors, who will be working with regional prosecutors around the country as they bring cases within their particular spheres of operations. There will also be Mobile Justice Teams that will be thematic in terms of focusing on the use of starvation as a weapon of war, sexual violence against women of – and women and girls, attacks on cultural property. These are not crimes that ordinary prosecutors are used to doing in their daily lives, and so the hope is that having this expertise on the ground, in the field, will be helpful to enable these cases to move forward.

The United States is also supporting a range of multinational efforts to advance accountability. This includes cases that are being considered by the International Criminal Court. The new prosecutor, Karim Khan, has recently opened an investigation. I understand he’s in Ukraine right now working with local officials there to coordinate their efforts around prosecutions. We’re also supporting the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has recently relaunched the Moscow Mechanism, which will take a second look at abuses committed since the last mechanism was deployed. There is a human rights monitoring mission that has been sent out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva. I’ve just come from Europe, where I was – had meetings in Brussels, The Hague, Geneva, et cetera, to try and help coordinate some of these efforts. And there’s a whole range of civil society actors that are actively engaged in documenting these abuses from a trauma-informed perspective.

https://www.state.gov/briefings-foreign-press-centers/war-crimes-and-accountability-in-ukraine

[sheshe2]

60. Thank you.

[Voltaire2]

61. We don't recognize the authority of the ICC.

[bigtree]

64. that's why I posted some of DOJ's other priorities in Ukraine

...they're not one-dimensional, not all roads of justice and accountability lead to the ICC as the op suggests.

___In a meeting with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland commended the efforts of the Ukrainian people to defend democracy and uphold the rule of law, and announced additional U.S. actions to help Ukraine identify, apprehend, and prosecute those individuals involved in war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.

“The United States stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s continued aggression and assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Attorney General Garland. “America – and the world – has seen the many horrific images and read the heart-wrenching accounts of brutality and death that have resulted from Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine.”

Specifically, Attorney General Garland announced the launch of a War Crimes Accountability Team to centralize and strengthen the Justice Department’s ongoing work to hold accountable those who have committed war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. This initiative will bring together the Department’s leading experts in investigations involving human rights abuses and war crimes and other atrocities; and provide wide-ranging technical assistance, including operational assistance and advice regarding criminal prosecutions, evidence collection, forensics, and relevant legal analysis. The team will also play an integral role in the Department’s ongoing investigation of potential war crimes over which the U.S. possesses jurisdiction, such as the killing and wounding of U.S. journalists covering the unprovoked Russian aggression in Ukraine.

“There is no hiding place for war criminals. The U.S. Justice Department will pursue every avenue of accountability for those who commit war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine,” said Attorney General Garland. “Working alongside our domestic and international partners, the Justice Department will be relentless in our efforts to hold accountable every person complicit in the commission of war crimes, torture, and other grave violations during the unprovoked conflict in Ukraine.”

To lead this effort, the Attorney General has tapped Eli Rosenbaum to serve as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability. Rosenbaum is a 36-year veteran of the Justice Department who previously served as Director of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), which was primarily responsible for identifying, denaturalizing, and deporting Nazi war criminals. In his role as Counselor for War Crimes Accountability, Rosenbaum will coordinate efforts across the Justice Department and the federal government to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine. Rosenbaum will be joined in his work by other prosecutors from the Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP), including Acting Section Chief Hope Olds and prosecutors Christian Levesque, Christina Giffin, and Courtney Urschel.

In addition, the Justice Department will provide additional personnel to expand its work with Ukraine and other partners to counter Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion. Among other things, the Department will provide Ukraine an expert Justice Department prosecutor to advise on fighting kleptocracy, corruption, and money laundering. In addition, it plans to deploy two expert attorneys from the Office of International Affairs (OIA) – one to a U.S. Embassy in Europe, and another to a U.S. Embassy in the Middle East – in support of the Department’s KleptoCapture Task Force. These senior attorneys will work closely with their counterparts in EU member states and Middle Eastern countries to facilitate mutual legal assistance and extraditions relating to Russian illicit finance and sanctions evasion, including with respect to designated Russian oligarchs who have supported the Russian regime and its efforts to undermine Ukrainian sovereignty.

Attorney General Garland announced the KleptoCapture Task Force in March to further leverage the Department’s tools and authorities against efforts to evade or undermine the economic actions taken by the U.S. Government in response to Russian military aggression. Since then, the task force has facilitated the seizure of superyachts of two sanctioned individuals with close ties to the Russian regime; dismantled Russian criminal networks; and enforced sanctions violations, among other actions.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-merrick-b-garland-visits-ukraine-reaffirms-us-commitment-help-identify

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/fact-sheet-administration-legislative-proposals-support-kleptocracy-asset-recovery

[OnDoutside]

22. Didn't Boris Johnson do something similar recently ? Although

Johnson did it to deflect attention away from his latest scandal....

[yaesu]

24. Any and all in person support for the free World is very welcome, I for one thank the AG

making this important trip.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

27. +1

Having our AG go to Ukraine as a way to stand against widespread Russian war crimes is vital.

[Cracklin Charlie]

26. I think there may be more here than meets the eye.

I am starting to think Ukraine has been a big, but maybe silent (stealthy) ally in our war against transnational crime. Maybe they have important information to share with the Attorney General?

Lots going on today.

[UTUSN]

29. "time on his hands" - yip. The headline made my heart skip beats. First thought, clearing up

Drumpf's dealings. Then the thought crossed: BURISMA?!

Then getting what the reason-for-the-visit was said to be, yes noble reason but also deepening Russian motivation for ultimate escalations.

*** But the OP said it for me, he apprarently doesn't feel stretched thin.

[MineralMan]

31. The AG has many responsibilities.

But, why not take every opportunity to snark at him? Might as well, I suppose.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

33. For this thread

Link to tweet

[Cha]

53. Rt💕🤷‍♂️TY!

💙💛

[Joinfortmill]

37. Garland is a hero, I'm telling you. But he's a very, very quiet hero - a stealth hero. LOL

[KS Toronado]

41. "a stealth hero."

Works for me !

[MarineCombatEngineer]

39. Aaannnndddd another AG Garland bashing post.

[Traildogbob]

42. He can watch Rachel tonight

She will be thorough and he can do both effectively. Bigger things to bitch about.

[housecat]

43. What do Merrick Garland, Joe Biden, and Anthony Fauci have in common? They're criticized by

armchair pundits for everything. It might be more constructive for liberals and DU'ers to at least give them the benefit of the doubt until we have the facts. Wingnuts can knock themselves out complaining to each other, because they don't believe in facts anyway.

[SoonerPride]

46. I've given him the benefit of the doubt.

The clock is ticking.

He does not have unlimited time.

[FrankBooth]

44. Right on schedule...

The one-trick pony crew here for to show off their daily jump through the flaming hoop. Boring.

[SoonerPride]

47. You're free to trash all my threads

I mean it is an option.

[FrankBooth]

50. That is true...

I'm also free to comment on that poor pony having to jump through that hoop again.

[Kingofalldems]

48. What I read with these is 'Trump wins'.

Pretty sickening.

[SoonerPride]

51. I agree, it is sickening.

[Torchlight]

45. Good to know the Ukrainian legal team is getting assistance

After Russia eventually loses the conflict, a series of historic, trans-national trials will probably be held for the remnants of Moscow's government (at least those who remain alive through Putin's current distemper).

[citizen blues]

49. This is an important piece of the puzzle....

Garland's cleaned up and is still cleaning up the DOJ. He's hired over 100 additional prosecutors including the nation's top RICO prosecutors. He's already subpoenaed the J6 committee for everything they have and will have. He's letting them go first, so the information is public instead of sealed by a Grand Jury proceeding.

Now, he's establishing a working relationship and partnership with Ukraine to hold the Russians accountable in that country and in the international courts, just like he's been working to hold them and their paid assets accountable here in the U.S.

Sure sounds like the man's doing his job! And a helluva fine job at that!

Look, Merrick Garland is meticulous and always holds his cards close to his chest. While Trump's still trying to figure out why there are red and black squares on a checker board, Garland is busy playing 3D chess.

This trip to Ukraine is another indication that the dam's about to break.

[BlackSkimmer]

56. Wow.

Not quite sure what to think about this.

[gldstwmn]

57. That's... interesting.

[Hortensis]

59. BIG problem with doom-and-glooming is becoming emotionally invested

in being right.

Recent Garland threads reminded me of that little satellite forum circling DU where some of DU's cultist HillHaters fled after we supposedly "stole" the 2016 primary from them. So I dropped by to see what they were saying about the hearings. Depressing and worse even than I imagined.

Crickets.

The remnants still there have become so emotionally invested in Democratic failure that I have to assume the striking silence means the hearings are painful. Of course, though they did help elect tRump, some voting directly for him, others refusing to vote against, Democratic failure has always been their ideological lodestar.

Heavy attention to Ukraine and foreign policy instead (all negative, of course, since the Biden admin is for). Do they feel vindicated when they hear about another city smashed to rubble? Happy-thinking about 2024 when the tRumpists will vindicate them "again" by smashing Democrats?

I doubt it. Their determined doomerism has never taken them to a happy place.

[Bucky]

63. Those damn firemen are just sitting around the station feeding the dalmatian....

Why aren't they out fighting a fire RIGHT FUCKING NOW?!¡!!11!!!!1!