You’d suppose that an legal professional basic who has presided over the embarrassing debacle of the Hunter Biden investigation would specific contrition, or perhaps somewhat anger on the underlings who’ve shamed him, when he’s hauled earlier than a congressional committee to clarify his failures.
However alas, Merrick Garland is simply one other Mr. Magoo.
His division is ablaze however he is aware of nothing.
The nation’s chief legislation enforcement officer has no particular perception into the malfeasance unfolding underneath his nostril.
He’s simply an oblivious bystander, unperturbed by the tyrannical flip the DOJ has taken underneath his management, persecuting his boss’ political enemies and coddling the crooked president’s crooked family members.
Though Garland was a decide, he makes no judgments in any respect.
He professes to have no view about US Attorney David Weiss’ farcical five-year “investigation” of the president’s 53-year-old son, Hunter.
“I promised the Senate that I’d not intrude,” he told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday.
“I’ve not intruded or tried to judge that, as a result of that was the promise I made to the Senate.” What an honorable man, preserving his guarantees.
However he’s the ship’s captain. There’s a fireplace within the maintain, the vessel goes down, and he doesn’t even hassle himself to seek out out what occurred.
“Have you ever had private contact with anybody at FBI Headquarters concerning the Hunter Biden investigation?” requested Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La).
Stammering Merrick
For what appeared like an eternity however was actually about seven seconds, Garland seemed down at his tightly clasped arms, slowly turned his head left and proper as if the reply would possibly materialize someplace on the empty desk under him, then popped his tongue, stated “ahhhh,” pursed his lips, exhaled and organized the sides of his mouth in a downward shrug, earlier than lastly trying up at Johnson with a sheepish expression and stammering: “I don’t actual . . . I don’t . . . ah . . . I don’t recollect the reply to that query however the FBI works for the Justice Division?” a non sequitur delivered in a cascade of upward inflections as if he was the one asking questions, or perhaps channeling a Valley Woman.
He desires us to applaud his pathological incuriosity concerning the corruption of Weiss’ probe, as uncovered by the two valiant IRS whistleblowers, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler. The type of skilled, nonpartisan public servants whom Garland professes to help, they’re the heroes of this sordid story.
They blew up their careers to testify concerning the slow-walking, the kid-glove therapy accessible to no different American, the tip-offs about search warrants, the constraints on investigators, the no-go zones wherever close to the Large Man, the refusal of geolocation searches to find out if Joe actually was within the room, like Hunter claimed, in his shakedown WhatsApp to a Chinese language benefactor, the burying of incriminating proof such because the FD-1023 FBI supply report alleging Hunter and Joe every took a $5 million bribe from a Ukrainian oligarch, and naturally, Hunter’s notorious laptop computer, which the FBI had authenticated and seized in December 2019, however which remained off-limits to the IRS investigators.
Not his drawback, Garland communicated, as he delivered the bravura stonewalling efficiency we’ve come to count on from Biden appointees.
Ascribing bias
Talking of which, his favourite line was to level out that Weiss, whom he has elevated to particular counsel regardless of manifest failures, was a “Trump appointee.”
He stated so 9 instances.
He appears to suppose that bias may be ascribed to prosecutors relying on which celebration appoints them. Presumably he applies that logic to himself, as a Biden appointee.
Normally good individuals discover it tedious to say the identical factor 9 instances in a row, however Garland appeared to take pleasure in it, till the fantastic Liz Cheney-slayer Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.) wiped the smirk off his face.
“Mr. Garland, one of many issues you will have finished and repeated over and time and again is to level out that Mr. Weiss was appointed as US legal professional by President Trump, as if that someway inoculates him from criticism by us. Is that basically how this sport is performed, that if somebody is appointed by a Republican, then they’re purported to be on the Republican crew, or in the event that they’re appointed by a Democrat, they’re on the Democrat crew? You had been appointed by Mr. Biden, weren’t you? Are you on the Democrat crew?”
Touché. He by no means stated it once more.
The listening to found in ineffective trend, alternating between Republicans laying zingers that went nowhere and obsequious Democrats bloviating about “excessive MAGA Republicans.”
“The Justice Division treats everybody alike” was Garland’s central lie. Any criticism of his biased prosecutors is “harmful,” he stated darkly.
He did permit himself a flash of sizzling indignation in his opening remarks when he drew on his household’s historical past of persecution as Jews in what’s now Belarus. His grandmother survived the Holocaust whereas two of her siblings perished.
“This nation took her in and underneath that safety [and] she was in a position to dwell with out worry of persecution,” he croaked. “The safety of legislation, the rule of legislation, is the muse of our system of presidency.”
But when he thought these high quality phrases would garner him tender therapy from the committee, Ukrainian born Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) deftly turned the tables on him.
“You had a really shifting assertion about your grandparents coming right here from Belarus to dwell within the nation with out worry of persecution,” she stated.
“I grew up in a really comparable nation, Ukraine now, and once I got here right here as an adolescent, I believed within the worth as an American to not be afraid of my authorities . . . Are you conscious that a number of Individuals are actually afraid of being prosecuted by your division? Are you conscious of that?“
Voters sick and drained
Garland began whining about “fixed assaults on the division,” however she interrupted.
“Not assaults . . . a number of good Individuals from my district came here [on Jan. 6] as a result of they’re sick and bored with this authorities not serving them. They got here with strollers and the children, and there was a chaotic scenario as a result of the correct safety wasn’t offered. [And then] FBI brokers confirmed as much as individuals’s homes. You might have in my district in my city, FBI cellphone numbers throughout [saying] please name [and inform on people].
“Individuals are actually afraid. It is a massive drawback when individuals are afraid of their very own authorities . . .
“It’s like KGB.”
Does Garland perceive that rogue prosecutors and disproportionately harsh J6 prosecutions are destroying belief within the justice system, as murderers and shoplifters get off straightforward, and a spirit of lawlessness and corruption infects the land?
No. There was not an indication that his conscience was troubled.
