The Merrick Garland Fraud
Jul 30, 2023 17:36:31 #
The Merrick Garland Fraud
By RICH LOWRY
July 30, 2023 6:30 AM
The attorney general was not as advertised.
No one keeps records on such things, but Merrick Garland is certainly a contender for greatest disparity between the praise lavished on him as a level-headed, by-the-books moderate for years and his hackishly partisan conduct once in office.
The latest example is the H****r B***n plea deal that blew up because it was so favorable, so irregular, and so damaging to the supposed investigation of Biden’s business dealings, which appears to be ongoing only so the DOJ can say there’s an ongoing investigation.
That the Justice Department took years to get to this point and that this was the end product — or the hoped-for end product — is its own scandal.
Somehow, Garland has let the clock run on the statute of limitations on potential crimes related to H****r’s overseas “work,” and since there still hasn’t been any indictment of H****r for anything, the clock is still ticking.
Somehow, he got a special counsel for the Trump cases, where he could use political insulation from charges against Biden’s probable opponent next year, and hasn’t appointed one on the Biden case, where there is a clear conflict that has obviously affected the handling of the case (that’s precisely the point).
Somehow, as the IRS whistleblowers have outlined, H****r B***n and his father got every possible break from DOJ investigators, as attempts to gather evidence were sabotaged and leads possibly connecting Joe to the shady dealings were ruled off limits.
Merrick Garland is the kind of attorney general that Trump always wanted but didn’t manage to get — compliant and careful to give him and his family every consideration while making sure that the other side is nailed to the wall.
When protesters showed up at the houses of conservative justices after the Dobbs leak, Garland didn’t lift a finger despite the obvious violation of the federal law against picketing at or parading near the home of a federal judge in order to influence the outcome of a judicial proceeding. When the National School Boards Association asked for federal-law-enforcement help dealing with alleged intimidation by parents complaining about work materials at schools, on the other hand, he issued a memo forthwith.
Strange New Respect is, of course, the phenomenon of conservatives getting newly respectful treatment in the press and in the Beltway when they turn left or betray their party.
As attorney general, Garland has been running on the fumes of his Commonly Repeated Old Respect, which was a central pillar of the forlorn case for him after Barack Obama nominated him to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court.
“I have selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, evenhandedness, and excellence.” (Barack Obama)
He is “a moderate federal appeals court judge and former prosecutor with a reputation for collegiality and meticulous legal reasoning.” (NPR)
“He is a careful, thoughtful jurist with a deep appreciation and impressive intellect of the law.” (Senator Robert Menendez)
According to a White House backgrounder, he had “shown a rare ability to bring people together” and “earned the respect of everyone he has worked with.”
And so on. It was all rehearsed again after Biden appointed him as attorney general and he was confirmed by the Senate 70–30.
Many Republicans have joined in the praise of him, and none of it was necessarily wrong. It just hasn’t applied to how he’s carried out his current duties.
It’s one thing to be a relative moderate when supervising the Oklahoma City case in the Department of Justice of a Clinton administration that tried, after its first two years, to occupy the political center, or while serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
It’s another to do it holding an extremely sensitive executive position at a time when the Left is ascendant in the Democratic Party and pushing on all fronts, and when the family of the president you serve is knee-deep in sleazy influence-peddling and his party is braying for his erstwhile and perhaps future p**********l opponent to be thrown in jail.
Garland, in some ways, is like Joe Biden in that he’s either happy to go with the flow of his party or too weak to resist it. He’s also like Biden in that he’s not as controversial and radioactive as he should be, partly because of his look and demeanor. Owlish and mild-mannered, Garland doesn’t accord with our standard image of a political hack.
He benefits, as well, from a friendly press. There may have been more attention dev**ed to the Jeff Sessions Russia recusal than there’s been to the question of whether there should be a special counsel in the H****r B***n case.
Whether the media choose to notice it or not, the disparity in how Garland was once touted and his conduct in office will, surely, only grow.
By RICH LOWRY
July 30, 2023 6:30 AM
The attorney general was not as advertised.
No one keeps records on such things, but Merrick Garland is certainly a contender for greatest disparity between the praise lavished on him as a level-headed, by-the-books moderate for years and his hackishly partisan conduct once in office.
The latest example is the H****r B***n plea deal that blew up because it was so favorable, so irregular, and so damaging to the supposed investigation of Biden’s business dealings, which appears to be ongoing only so the DOJ can say there’s an ongoing investigation.
That the Justice Department took years to get to this point and that this was the end product — or the hoped-for end product — is its own scandal.
Somehow, Garland has let the clock run on the statute of limitations on potential crimes related to H****r’s overseas “work,” and since there still hasn’t been any indictment of H****r for anything, the clock is still ticking.
Somehow, he got a special counsel for the Trump cases, where he could use political insulation from charges against Biden’s probable opponent next year, and hasn’t appointed one on the Biden case, where there is a clear conflict that has obviously affected the handling of the case (that’s precisely the point).
Somehow, as the IRS whistleblowers have outlined, H****r B***n and his father got every possible break from DOJ investigators, as attempts to gather evidence were sabotaged and leads possibly connecting Joe to the shady dealings were ruled off limits.
Merrick Garland is the kind of attorney general that Trump always wanted but didn’t manage to get — compliant and careful to give him and his family every consideration while making sure that the other side is nailed to the wall.
When protesters showed up at the houses of conservative justices after the Dobbs leak, Garland didn’t lift a finger despite the obvious violation of the federal law against picketing at or parading near the home of a federal judge in order to influence the outcome of a judicial proceeding. When the National School Boards Association asked for federal-law-enforcement help dealing with alleged intimidation by parents complaining about work materials at schools, on the other hand, he issued a memo forthwith.
Strange New Respect is, of course, the phenomenon of conservatives getting newly respectful treatment in the press and in the Beltway when they turn left or betray their party.
As attorney general, Garland has been running on the fumes of his Commonly Repeated Old Respect, which was a central pillar of the forlorn case for him after Barack Obama nominated him to fill Antonin Scalia’s seat on the Supreme Court.
“I have selected a nominee who is widely recognized not only as one of America’s sharpest legal minds, but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, evenhandedness, and excellence.” (Barack Obama)
He is “a moderate federal appeals court judge and former prosecutor with a reputation for collegiality and meticulous legal reasoning.” (NPR)
“He is a careful, thoughtful jurist with a deep appreciation and impressive intellect of the law.” (Senator Robert Menendez)
According to a White House backgrounder, he had “shown a rare ability to bring people together” and “earned the respect of everyone he has worked with.”
And so on. It was all rehearsed again after Biden appointed him as attorney general and he was confirmed by the Senate 70–30.
Many Republicans have joined in the praise of him, and none of it was necessarily wrong. It just hasn’t applied to how he’s carried out his current duties.
It’s one thing to be a relative moderate when supervising the Oklahoma City case in the Department of Justice of a Clinton administration that tried, after its first two years, to occupy the political center, or while serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
It’s another to do it holding an extremely sensitive executive position at a time when the Left is ascendant in the Democratic Party and pushing on all fronts, and when the family of the president you serve is knee-deep in sleazy influence-peddling and his party is braying for his erstwhile and perhaps future p**********l opponent to be thrown in jail.
Garland, in some ways, is like Joe Biden in that he’s either happy to go with the flow of his party or too weak to resist it. He’s also like Biden in that he’s not as controversial and radioactive as he should be, partly because of his look and demeanor. Owlish and mild-mannered, Garland doesn’t accord with our standard image of a political hack.
He benefits, as well, from a friendly press. There may have been more attention dev**ed to the Jeff Sessions Russia recusal than there’s been to the question of whether there should be a special counsel in the H****r B***n case.
Whether the media choose to notice it or not, the disparity in how Garland was once touted and his conduct in office will, surely, only grow.
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