THAT IS the public question….
As I have written here before….
Garland has to decide if HE will allow the United States Justice Dept. to go after a ex-President for what appears to be a effort to steal an election in broad daylight , and with violence as a cover….
The charges the House Select Committee have laid out to the American public and the World would have anyone else but Donald Trump indicted and on trial asking for a plea bargain ….
It IS a decision of his lifetime for Garland….
And?
Everyone is waiting…..
Evidence that Trump intentionally obstructed an official proceeding—Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s victory in 2020—is mounting. On Wednesday night, the committee issued a subpoena for Pat Cipollone, the former White House counsel. Hutchinson, in her testimony, said that Cipollone repeatedly warned the President that his actions were illegal. Cipollone, who has declined to testify under oath so far, has the opportunity to become the John Dean of the Trump era: a White House counsel who puts the public airing of a President’s criminal activity above party loyalty.
The feverish and tribal nature of American politics today threatens again to reduce the chances that Trump will be held accountable. Hutchinson’s testimony astonished Justice Department prosecutors as much as it did the viewing public, the Times reported. It also blindsided them. The committee gave no advance warning of Hutchinson’s statements to department prosecutors, who have spent months investigating the assault. The prosecutors don’t have access to videos and transcripts of hours of testimony that Hutchinson has provided to the committee behind closed doors.
A rift appears to be opening between Congress and the D.O.J. Earlier this month, four top Justice Department officials sent a letter to the committee criticizing it for not sharing transcripts from the thousand-plus interviews it has conducted. “The Select Committee’s failure to grant the Department access to these transcripts complicates the Department’s ability to investigate and prosecute those who engaged in criminal conduct,” the letter stated.
The hearings are also creating opportunities for defense lawyers representing Trump loyalists. They have complained to prosecutors that the committee’s practice of releasing limited details of its investigation—often in dramatic, made-for-virality clips—is unfair to their clients….
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Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University, also called for patience. “The Attorney General had said he will follow the evidence,” Gillers told me. “I believe him, and I believe there will be an indictment.” The refusal by Pat Cipollone and other former White House officials to testify may yet protect Trump. But the political reality and the evidence are both increasingly clear. In an unprecedented moment in American history, a President who conducted a failed coup appears intent on returning to power by any means necessary. If there was ever a time for coöperation, trust, and patience among Trump opponents, regardless of position or party, it is now. ♦….