More than a few folks have been dogging out Attorney General Merrick Garland for supposedly moving too slowly on the January 6th investigation and for not appointing a Special Counsel sooner.
Setting aside the fact that Garland had no statutory authority to appoint a Special Counsel before he did (hold that thought – I’ll get back to it in a minute), it’s funny to see people treating Jack Smith like a badass action hero and Garland like a hapless failure – when it was Garland himself who selected and hired him.
But that said, it’s becoming apparent that Garland is even slicker and more strategic than people realized.
As I noted, Garland’s been getting heat for not appointing Smith sooner. But that criticism is founded on a lack of understanding of the Special Counsel statute An Attorney General can’t just appoint a Special Counsel whenever they choose or because they want to speed up an investigation and get a prosecution wrapped up before an election. They can only appoint a Special Counsel if a conflict of interest arises that makes it inappropriate for DOJ attorneys to handle an investigation and prosecution. And that conflict first arose last November when Trump declared his candidacy, making himself a political rival of Garland’s boss. And Garland was ready – the minute that happened, Garland pounced and sicced the barracuda on Trump.
In retrospect, it apoears more and more like Garland played Trump like a fiddle, quietly going about his business, overseeing an investigation that, despite the endless complaining of teevee pundits and anonymous sources, was moving along robustly and quickly.
And then Trump messed up and played right into Garland’s hands, announcing his candidacy well before he had to, giving Garland the perfect excuse to bring in Smith, something he couldn’t have done if Trump hadn’t announced his intention to run against the president Garland reports to. The speed with which Garland moved to appoint Smith, who was named just two days after Trump’s announcement, suggests Garland already had that card up his sleeve and was just waiting for Trump to misplay his hand to pull it out and slap it down.
Smith was ready, too. He came in hot, built on the work DOJ had been doing for the previous year and a half, and took it to the next level in a way that would have been difficult, if not impossible, for DOJ prosecutors to do on their own.
We’re now starting to see the results – because it’s now clear that, contrary to what some of Garland’s detractors claim, Garland didn’t bring Smith in to START the investigation. He brought him in to FINISH it
Nicely played, Mr. Attorney General!