Anyone calling for the replacement of Garland are playing into the hands of Trump's defenders

[summer_in_TX]

57. The WaPo article today has a lot of heavy-weight pushback.

For instance, Emptywheel (Marcy – M.T. Wheeler) points out the WaPo article relied quite a bit on Steve D'Antuono – but a deeper dive would raise questions about his own role and his credibility.

The WaPo has a story that many Merrick Garland attackers claim confirms their fears about the DOJ investigation. Except the story has really important gaps, most importantly in its portrayal of the fake electors investigation, which is the damning part of the story about Garland or Lisa Monaco’s direct decisions (as opposed to those of FBI).

Moreover, the one thing it proves definitively is that former FBI Washington Field Office head Steve D’Antuono repeatedly shot down investigative prongs of this investigation, just like he did the stolen documents investigation. That the head of the WFO was running interference for Trump raises key questions about FBI missteps with people like Brandon Straka, someone arrested early who had direct ties to the scheme in the Willard, to say nothing about WFO’s ineptitude in advance of the attack.

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/06/19/the-wapo-shows-there-should-be-more-scrutiny-of-steve-dantuono/

On Twitter, she points out "One reason FBI (and to be clear, this story is primarily about FBI, not DOJ) was hesitant to investigate Trump is bc w/exception of NYT, no journalists have covered how John Durham criminally investigated the FBI because they investigated Trump."

"From March, on how THE POINT of the Durham investigation was to make the FBI think twice before taking steps against Trump."

From her blog:
Trophy Documents: The Entire Point Was to Make FBI Obedient

https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/03/06/trophy-documents-the-entire-point-was-to-make-fbi-obedient/

Then there's this from Allison Gill posting as Mueller, She Wrote:
"Today’s Washington Post reporting contradicts Washington Post reporting from March 2022 that subpoenas for info on the leadership of the coup had been going out since Jan 2022."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/03/30/jan-6-fbi-subpoena-justice/