Below is my column in The Hill on Attorney General Merrick Garland at the midpoint of his tenure at the Justice Department. For an Attorney General who said that he wanted to restore the trust of the public in his department, Garland has manifestly failed to achieve his goal. It appears that the Justice Department and FBI are now trusted less than under his predecessor, Bill Barr. A new poll shows that 55 percent of the public view the Trump indictment as “politically motivated” and 56% believe that it constitutes election interference. A similar majority wanted Trump pardoned if convicted.
Here is the column:
Merrick Garland began his tenure as attorney general with the stated intention of restoring faith in the Justice Department and the rule of law. By that standard, Garland has been a failure.
In fact, if anything, the crisis of faith surrounding his department has only deepened on his watch, and he bears some of the blame.
Polls show that half the country distrusts the FBI. A recent poll by Harvard CAPS-Harris found that 70 percent are either very or somewhat concerned about election interference by the FBI and other intelligence agencies. An additional 71 percent agreed that changes post-2016 had not done enough to prevent further interference and that “wide-ranging” reform was still required. Another poll showed 64 percent view the FBI as “politically compromised.”
During the term of his predecessor, Bill Barr, 50 percent of the public viewed the department favorably, and 70 percent had a favorable view of the FBI. The public trust of the department appears to have declined under Garland. At the very least, it has not dramatically improved.
There is variation in these polls, but they show a deep-seated distrust of the Justice Department that continues to taint all of the department’s work.
For example, the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump contains extremely damaging elements, including an audiotape that directly contradicts Trump’s assertions that he declassified all of the documents in his possession. Yet even the Justice Department’s release of an unusually detailed indictment, with pictures designed to sway public opinion, appears to have had little effect. While 48 percent of the public believes that the charges are justified, 47 percent believe the charges are “politically motivated.”
The response to this indictment shows the gravitational pull of public perceptions of the Justice Department. That perception of bias is well earned. Various officials were removed from the Department by career officials for their express bias and misconduct during the Russia-collusion investigation. That investigation was recently found by Special Counsel John Durham to have been launched with the backing of the Clinton campaign and without the minimal evidence ordinarily required by the department.
The Justice Department and the media kept the investigation going for years despite the lack of credible evidence.
When Biden gave the nod to Garland, I thought it was a brilliant move. Garland had been an affable, principled and moderate judge. Many of us criticized the Senate’s refusal to give him a vote after his nomination to the Supreme Court. I now believe that he would have made a great justice for all the reasons he has proven to be a poor attorney general.
He is affable but not influential or effective in changing the department. He is the very symbol for maintaining a status quo that the public rejects.
Garland leads the department with the same judicial temperament and persona. Predecessors such as Barr came to the department as former prosecutors with a clarity of purpose and mission. That would put Barr in conflict with Trump, but he was a hands-on manager who penetrated every level of the department. While some opposed Barr’s priorities, no one doubted who was in control of that department.
Garland’s reputation is more like that of a supervising judge who defers to the views and decisions of his agency. The result has been disastrous for the department. Even FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that the past scandals demanded fundamental changes in the department’s operations.
Yet Garland allowed the culture to remain unchanged. He remained largely reactive to new scandals like the task force quickly assembled at the request of the teacher’s union and school board officials to investigate parents challenging school boards.
Garland remained largely silent as the FBI cracked down on conservative groups across the country in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. He said nothing as his subordinate prosecutor Michael Sherwin bragged on in a television interview how they sought to unleash “shock and awe” on those who supported the election challenge to ensure that certain “people were afraid to come back to D.C.”
While most of us supported the tough punishment of rioters, the Justice Department was criticized for its draconian treatment of people charged with relatively minor offenses such as trespass and unlawful entry into the Capitol.
The controversies continue to pile up, from the seizure of the phone of a member of Congress to alleged disparate treatment in investigations of pro-life over pro-choice groups. Some of these and other controversies are legitimately debatable; others are not.
Garland could have taken steps to assure the public that there is not a two-tiered system of justice but repeatedly refused to do so. For example, Garland has continued to refuse to appoint a special counsel in the investigation of Hunter Biden. By doing so, Garland has removed the president’s greatest threat in the form of a report that would detail the scope of the Biden family’s alleged influence peddling and foreign contacts.
Garland is now looking at a new inflammatory situation after Special Counsel Jack Smith has leveled 37 charges against Trump while Robert Hur, “the other special counsel” investigating Biden, has largely disappeared from sight.
There is also the notable absence of any decision by Smith on another part of his mandate: crimes associated with Jan. 6th. Some of us have argued that Trump’s controversial speech was constitutionally protected. While Smith was swift to charge on the documents matter, he has not resolved the other part of his mandate even though the Jan. 6th matter has widely investigated by the Justice Department and Congress. The concern is that the Justice Department does not want to undermine the widespread claims in the media and Congress that Trump committed crimes in supporting an “insurrection.”
Garland has also supported the appointment of controversial officials such as Kirsten Clarke and Rachael Rollins, deepening the distrust of conservatives.
Time and again, Garland could have made decisions to seek to assure the public with more moderate and transparent decisions. He has repeatedly failed to do so.
Garland is not solely at fault. Biden took office promising to be a unifier and a moderate. He immediately adopted far left policies and fueled divisions by denouncing millions of “MAGA Republicans” and his political opponents as “semi-fascist” extremists.
Garland repeatedly pledged that political considerations would hold no sway with him as attorney general. He has certainly refrained from Biden’s style of divisive rhetoric. However, he has done little prospectively to assure the public that the department is pursuing cases without political bias. He continues to repeat the mantra of “trust us, we’re the government,” long after that trust has been lost with many citizens.
The failure of Merrick Garland is becoming more and more evident by the day. The public continues to distrust the Department, and his assurances of fair dealing have been overwhelmingly rejected by Republicans and independents.
It is hard to dislike Merrick Garland as a man. But as an attorney general, there is little to like about his last two years.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can follow him on Twitter @JonathanTurley.
Nobody’s heard the tape and Turley is already saying it’s highly problematic he’s never even heard the tape he’s just taking known Liars word for it again they lied about everything in the past 7 years you think they’re going to start telling the truth now why wouldn’t they lie about this man Turkey is just so naive
It is likely the Tape exists. I Beleive CNN has a transcript and excerpts are in the indictment.
That Said Smith would be better off if the tape did NOT exist – he is Trying Trump over classified information – while the prosecution team is leaking information that it can not legally disclose.
If the Tape exists – Smith’s team could potentially be removed for leaking.
Or themselves be subject to investigation – by Trump or the House or at the direction of the Judge.
Regardless it is really bad as a prosecutor to be leaking secret information when you are prosecuting someone merely for posessing it.
So if we don’t have a two tier justice system please someone explain this . Hunter Biden gets zero time for his crimes , yet the guy who put his feet upon Pelosi’s desk got four years behind bars .
Outrage is the appropriate response to Biden’s lawless dictatorship!
And….Biden’s Stasi/FBI *continues to arrest everyday Americans who protested Joe Biden’s election 3 years ago!
Chris Wray’s Gestapo/FBI is throwing the book at them!
Outrageous INJUSTICE!
_________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, June 16, 2023
Three Minnesota Men Arrested and Charged for Actions During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach
Defendants Charged with Obstruction of Law Enforcement
WASHINGTON — Three Minnesota men have been arrested and charged with a felony and related misdemeanor crimes stemming from their involvement in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.
Charged in court documents are Kenneth Wayne Fuller, 44, and Caleb Kenneth Fuller, 20, both of Cleveland, Minnesota. Also charged is Nicholas John Fuller, 40, of Mapleton, Minnesota. Caleb Fuller is the son of Kenneth Wayne Fuller, and Nicholas Fuller is the brother of Kenneth Wayne Fuller.
Each defendant is charged with one felony count of obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder and misdemeanor counts of knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Republicans (dissidents) are being hunted and persecuted by Biden’s lawless dictatorship.
Everyday working people are STILL being arrested by Biden’s DOJ and charged with FELONIES three years after protesting Biden’s election!
Hunter Biden’s gun crimes, drug crimes, corruption, bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, etc, get nothing but a slap on his wrist.
This is Joe Biden’s Third World Dictatorship.
This country will not allow the BIDEN Crime Family to slip off into the sunset and get away with their LAWLESSNESS and CORRUPTION!
Joe Biden WILL be impeached and removed for the High Crimes of BRIBERY and TREASON.
No justice. No peace.
The explanation is simple – Political corruption.
Turley still doesn’t get it he never does he always makes his way 80% of the way there and then he stumbles must be his moral relativism.
IMPEACH Joe Biden.
IMPEACH Merrick Garland
IMPEACH Alejandro Mayorkas
IMPEACH Chris Wray
As leftwing nutjob lunatic Rep. Rashida Tlaib shouted: IMPEACH the motherf*ckers!
What are you waiting for Republicans in Congress??
IMPEACH NOW.
Republicans should have several focused objectives.
First to be the party protecting people from government.
Next to be investigating and exposing government corruption.
Next to keep the misconduct of the Biden crime family in the news for the next two years.
Next to avoid getting coerced into more bad legislation.
No one is going to be removed from office. until Nov 2024.
I do not have a problem with Republican strategic impeachments for the purpose of tying up the Senate in an impeachment trial.
But hoping that will result in someone’s removal is stupid.
The goal is to make them all albatrosses arround the necks of the democratic party so that this crap never happens again.
Republicans are better off subpeoning informatin that results in a long protacted fight even if they do not want.
The more the Biden admin appears to be hiding things the better.
It’s always the weasel-like characters that act like tyrants when they get into a position of power. Garland is that weasel.
“While most of us supported the tough punishment of rioters,”. No “most” of us do not. Again – it is the selective punishment that is the core issue. BLM and ANTIFA skate while patriots and hunted down. The 2020 “election” deserved to be and should have been challenged. There is zero chance that demented Joe Biden received the most presidential votes in history – zero chance.”Rigged” is too gentle a term.
The 5 swing states all had a 100,000+ spike for Biden at 3:06 am to 5:00 am on the election night, then afterwards percentages of votes took a mathematical exacting percentage between the two candidates, always giving Biden the percent to the tenth exact number advantage by county.
A mathematical statistical impossibility. The steal is clear as day in many other ways too, but of course, liars are ever present today and none ashamed. Voting is a joke now.
When Obama was born without two US citizen parents (In Hawaii no matter) he was disqualified to run for POTUS.
The lying legal heads have claimed that is “up in the air” or claimed it’s not what the Constitution says. However we have a legal wrangle of a former POTUS who fought that publicly many decades ago, it was said his Father was a Canadian citizen at his birth, well all his records in his home conveniently burned to a crisp so opposition couldn’t “prove it”.
Our government hasn’t followed the law for a long time.
Now a lot of our POTUS candidates are totally unqualified and it seems they want to push that as much as they possibly can, because globalism is eating the world and being a traitor to the nation you represent is in vogue.
It’s so criminal now from the top down IMO nothing is going to stop it.
We have seen the fight to do so lose ground over the past several decades and it is now accelerating corruption in our faces as even opposition makes weak arguments and excuses.
Sorry, but it’s not a show to restraint and “judicial temperament” when the nations top “justice” official stands by as his underlings give the president’s son a pass on violations they many are serving prison time for. When you see abuse and ethical violations, you be a leader and stop it. That’s what Garland is supposed to be paid for by taxpayers. I mean, how how do you imagine this playing out in Garlands mind if you still somehow think he would have made a good SCOTUS justice? What are you giving him credit for? Are we to believe that Garland see’s the system working when one person violates gun laws and goes to prison but a well connected politician’s son doesn’t?
I’m bewildered at how you can square the belief that an ethically compromised Garland would make a good SCOTUS Justice. We don’t appoint people to those positions for them to accumulate heraldry bullets for their resumes. If Garland will do nothing then it’s because he’s either incompetent or complicit. Neither is very comforting.
The utter failure of this author to adequately describe the laughable charges that are being leveled at the former President of the U.S. is a more accurate headline.
I agree, but I also understand how the elite act towards one another, in an enabling, friendly, fear filled way. The compliments are lathered on in between the criticisms, hopefully making it ok to do so. A “moderate” tongue lashing by a friend.
This is why nothing is going to change except for the worse, as it all swirls the corruption drain ever quicker and more obviously.
As the last bits are flushed the soft and mellow coos of praise will be the last thing heard.
That knucklehead (Garland) was nominated to the SCOTUS! We dodged a bullet there.
The fact that those numbers aren’t North of 70% shows how doomed we are. Media trained Marxists think they’re the good guys.
Failure? He’s fully corrupted the DOJ. Two separate systems of “justice” currently exist.
It’s been a GIGANTIC victory for communism.
America is filled with people who are guilty of federal crimes that could be proven in court, which fall under the jurisdiction of the DOJ. How does the DOJ go about selecting a subset of people from that larger group to investigate and indict? If only the DOJ and the FBI would publicly release a truthful, written statement describing that process.
Communist (liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO, AINO) America is more corrupt, rotten and rancid than Stalin’s Soviet Union.
“[Y]ou ticketed the getaway driver after a bank robbery.”
– Professor Turley to the dogged prosecutor Merrick Garland
Garland seems to be a good man and some reforms should be relatively easy. Here are some ideas of where to start reforms:
The U.S. Department of Justice, more than 20 years, composed of America’s best legal minds, was the “lead” agency in renaming torture techniques (recognized as torture for centuries) to the new & improved torture called “Enhanced Interrogation”. None of the DOJ torture attorneys have been disbarred from practicing law or penalized in any way.
Sorry, We dodged a bullet when Garland did not reach the Supreme court.
Oh yes, let the foxes guard the hen house; don’t forget to bring in people from our corrupt intelligence department to supervise them in their effort to radically change what the rule of law dictates. They have already done the undoable “broke what wasn’t broken.” Instead they should have fixed what was broken. with all our life energy on the line in the way of our tax dollars, all kinds of experiments can be the rule and not the exception. So to end, we have allowed ourselves to be experimented off the world stage and into hells kitchen to be smoked by the worlds losers who have turned into winners thanks to our complacency as a free people.
Prof. Turley, Sir, It now makes no difference that Garland ‘would’ve / could’ve’ made a Better Justice than AG due to past technique & temperament as the man has to-day shown himself to be easily politicized and in the final analysis completely devoid of INTEGRITY.
BREAKING: Omnibus Order of Judge Cannon
7/24/23: Deadline for all pre-trial motions and motions in limine
8/8/23: Calendar Call
8/14/23, or as soon thereafter the case may be called
YouTube has pulled a video of Jordan Petersons interview with Bobby Kennedy Jrs concerning vaccines. Kennedy must be silenced. No publicity at all for the Kennedy campaign.
Intentional naivete? To say that Garland has failed assumes that he was intending a different result than that which we are seeing. I don’t think that’s the case.
Agreed. Turkey exposes himself by pretending Garlands intentionality is unintentional. A good Supreme Court Justice? Surely Turkey you jest.
Even Turley is afraid, scared to death, that’s why he lofts the praise in between analysis.
Cognitive dissonance. Merrick Garland is a smart man who knows exactly what he is endorsing, and it’s not inaction on account of some kind of habit of judicial demeanor. He jumped right onto the bandwagon and it’s for, inter alia, corrupt government payola, multimillions, flowing to his daughter’s husband’s “education” company Panorama Education. That’s a CRT DEI-promoting privacy-intrusive tech spy data collection system being imposed on children in schools around the country.
(And he would have been a disaster as a Supreme Court justice for the same reasons including that what once was “liberal” now has gone off the rails into full-blown idiocracy.)
Trigger Warning: If these truth/facts make you angry it isn’t the fault of the truth/facts. – Joe Biden’s “A-TEAM” at WHITE HOUSE / TEL AVIV WEST should be investigated by the EEOC! – Start with AG MERRICK “OKC” GARLAND, both Chief of Staff’s, Sec State, Sec Homeland Security, Treas Sec, DNI, SEC Chair, CDC Dir, FCC Chair, Nat SEC Advisor, Council Econ Advisors, CyberSec Adviser, Covid-19 Response Coordinator, Dep Sec St, CIA Dep Dir, NAT SEC Border Czar, Science & Tech Adviser (SHORT LIST) WHAT ARE THOSE ODDS? LEGIT, HONEST, RATIONAL, NATIONAL SECURITY Question. If this was ANY other Nationality / Religion- especially when considering DUAL CITIZENSHIP’S… Such an OBVIOUS ONE-SIDED DOMINANCE should be considered a Red Flag. Don’t you think? ALSO BILL BARR would have been forced to recuse himself in any EPSTEIN/MAXWELL investigation… is getting ALOT of “expert” TV face-time. His father (ex-CIA) had a relationship with Jeff Epstein… and he’s the media’s “go-to-guy”?