Sure looks like Garland blew it....

[ancianita]

163. Not the main one. The judiciary hurt the country. AG Garland was the solution, not part of the problem.

There was no "EARLY." But there were

republican confirmation delays,
courts allowing frivolous motions,
courts hearing schedules,
courts appeals delays,
and the worst, SCOTUS delays

In review. For the TENTH time.

GARLAND was confirmed 2 MONTHS after Biden -- Republican holdup

Garland's #2 was confirmed by Congress 3 MONTHS after Biden -- Republican holdup;
then Lisa Monaco immediately operationalized the DOJ's eight major divisions.


Mar 10 2021: Merrick Garland confirmed as AG by Congress
Mar 11 2021: AG Garland assumes office

Apr 21 2021: Deputy AG Lisa O. Monaco assumes office

“Delay detractors" are off by over a year because the FBI IS the DOJ, and Garland's FBI began arrests on Jan 6 2021 and continued DOJ convictions until December 2024.

During the first months of FBI arrest actions, Garland was prosecuting new and outstanding cases, all while rebuilding the personnel of his assistant AG’s, deputies, and 8 Division heads. And meanwhile...

Republicans DELAY: STILL made Garland wait months for his division heads' confirmations;
SIX MONTHS after Biden inaugurated, July 2021: Republicans did not confirm Kenneth Polite to head the DOJ Criminal Division

10 months after he assumed office, January 6 2022 Garland stated:
“So far, we have
-- issued over 5,000 subpoenas and search warrants,
-- seized approximately 2,000 devices,
-- pored through over 20,000 hours of video footage, and
-- searched through an estimated 15 terabytes of data...
-- received over 300,000 tips from ordinary citizens, who have been our indispensable partners in this effort.”

Jan 2022 — Garland obtained
— 15 boxes found in the storage area
— the FBI found more than 11,000 government records at Maralago — of those
— 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, of those:
— 67 docs marked Confidential
— 92 docs marked Secret
— 25 docs marked Top Secret
markings reflected that docs were subject to sensitive compartments and dissemination controls
used to restrict access to material in the interest of national security, including
HCS(Humint Control system),
FISA(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act),
ORCON (originator controlled),
NORORN (could be NOFORN, no foreign national), AND
SI(Special Intelligence)


May 10 2022
— The first 100 documents marked as classified totaled over 700 pages [National Archives letter to Trump attorney, May 10, 2022]
May 11 2022:
— Garland convenes four DOJ Grand juries, one for Jan 6 convened until March 2024
— Grand Jury subpoenas Trump for documents

June 3 2022
— Trump lawyer hands over 40 boxes from Maralago storage room
— 38 docs marked Classified


June 3 2022: Garland's DOJ Grand jury subpoenas Trump for remaining classified govt documents in Maralago,
lawyers for Trump "certifying" that there were no more;
Trump stole 11,000 government docs, 300 classified docs — lawyers earlier handed over even more

July 22 2022: Garland's Grand jury testimony by Marc Short, Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff, & Short's counsel Greg Jacob

August 8 2022
— FBI warrant search of Maralago
— 103 marked Classified
— 18 marked Top Secret

The law violated: —- 18 U.S.C. 793— Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.
Penalty: Fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
More on the indictability of stolen documents:
https://www.justsecurity.org/83034/tracker-evidence-of-trumps-knowledge-and-involvement-in-retaining-mar-a-lago-documents/

Sept 2 2022:
Garland's Grand jury subpoenaed testimony by Pat Cipollone,

a) one of the participants in WH meeting Dec 18 2020, that included Giuliani, Powell, Flynn, Patrick Byrne of Overstock,
b) Cipollone sat in on Jan 3 2021 DOJ official meeting with Trump, and
c) Cipollone was in direct contact with trump on Jan 6 during capitol insurrection, and did nothing when Meadows told him Trump didn’t want to interfere with rioters calling for hanging Mike Pence)
and Patrick Philbin

Sept 15 2022: Garland's Grand Jury subpoenas Mark Meadows for testimony and documents
the month of Sept 2022: Garland's DOJ issued over 40 subpoenas to people close to Trump, some of whom are

— Bill Stepien, DT’s campaign mgr; part of team to prevent certification
— Sean Dollman, DT’s campaign CFO
— Ben Williamson, Deputy of Mark Meadows,
— Boris Epshteyn, Trump's lawyer -- phone demanded; part of team to prevent certification
— Mike Lindell -- phone seized
— William Russell, WH special asst to Trump, THEN special aide to Trump in Mar-a-lago

Oct 6 2022: Garland's Grand jury calls back Greg Jacob
Oct 13 2022: Garland's Grand Jury calls back Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff

Nov 4 2022: classified docs found in Biden’s

-- Wilmington home (garage, library), (no docs in Rehoboth beach home) and
-- Penn Biden Center in DC (Richard Sauber is spec counsel to Pres Biden)
Nov 14 2022: Garland asks John Lausch (Trump appointed US Atty, Chicago) to review found Biden documents

Nov 18 2022 Garland appoints Jack Smith (3 days after Trump announces his candidacy for 2024), who inherits all the Garland evidence, investigative and charging documents

By that very day, Nov 18 2022, Garland's DOJ had convicted more than 323 Jan 6 insurrectionists.

All of the above is what AG Merrick Garland did before Jack Smith.

Garland actions were the CORE contribution to the two Special Counsel investigations.
Garland handed off GARLAND's Classified Documents case and Election Interference case to Jack Smith on the day Smith was sworn in.

These will forever remain the facts of Garland's Jan 6 work during his first 20 months in office -- SIXTEEN Jan 6 convictions per week -- INCLUDING...

Garland secured historic convictions for seditious conspiracy (18 U.S. Code § 2384) against leaders of Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys

Stewart Rhodes: sentenced in May 2023 to 18 years in prison—one of the longest sentences handed down in connection with the Capitol attack.
Kelly Meggs: The leader of the Oath Keepers' Florida -- 12 years in prison.
Joseph Hackett and Roberto Minuta: Florida chapters -- 42 months, 5 years

Enrique Tarrio: The former chairman of the Proud Boys -- 21 years in prison.
Ethan Nordean: 18 years in prison.
Joseph Biggs: A prominent organizer and a former Infowars correspondent --17 years in prison.
Zachary Rehl: The president of the Philadelphia chapter -- 15 years in prison.

What REALLY stands out is the memory-free, fact-free and willful ignorance of DU's Garland attackers, especially of Garland's wisdom in choosing Jack Smith at the Hague as Special Counsel.

My own past defense of Merrick Garland was to remind attackers here that they need more and wider perspective, and less self indulgent, constant complaining and name calling when they didn't get the faster convictions they want because of the federal courts system we have.

History will remember the factual scope and magnitude of justice the Garland DOJ gave this country, and Garland himself as the most productive AG of the last three Democratic administrations.