With a Special Counsel, Garland Helps Trump Run the Clock
Trump heads off indictment, paints gloomy view of Biden ruining "the greatest economy in the history of the world" he says he created.
The moment "the pause" was over — the 60-days before an election during which the Justice Department refrains from actions that might affect votes — Donald Trump announced a run for a second term. The Justice Department has a rule not to indict a sitting president. Trump's maneuver, the earliest presidential candidate announcement ever, was clearly in the hope that this policy might carry over to shield a candidate, too.
He was right. A widely expected indictment, at least for the documents he took to Mar-a-Lago, did not come. Instead, Attorney General Merrick Garland punted, some would say, announcing the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel to handle the two cases, the stolen documents and Trump's alleged interference with the government process of transferring power to the newly elected president. Smith, remote from American politics, is currently prosecuting war criminals in den Haag, but has already plunged in, apparently.
Garland's stated reason for the Smith assignment is that for "particularly sensitive matters…in certain extraordinary cases, it is in the public interest to appoint a special prosecutor". Biden suggesting that he will announce his candidacy soon after the turn of the year presents a conflict for Garland. Appointed by Biden, the AG is in the awkward position of criminally prosecuting Biden's rival. A special counsel removes Garland from the day-to-day workings and decisions of the investigations, although ultimately it will be he who must decide what to do with the special counsel's recommendations.
The instantaneous reaction was that Trump has won again, rewarded by the DOJ for announcing this soon to avoid indictment. The master of running out the clock, Trump had sued in a Florida district to block Justice's review of the documents taken from Mar-a-Lago where a Trump appointed judge ruled in his favor, then lobbied for a special master to slow the process, to which Justice acquiesced, and now in this open-and-shut case — Trump took documents in violation of the Presidential Records Act, period — he's getting a special counsel. Instead of an indictment any day now, it's who knows when?
Nothing, of course, will placate the Trump apologists. Garland's Justice has granted Trump indefensible deference for a criminal act for which any one of us would have seen prison eighteen months ago, yet that has not occurred to Fox hosts such as Laura Ingraham who asks, "Does anyone actually believe that this is all in the 'public interest'?", or Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene who says, "It's nothing but… Click to continue reading