Acting on a mix of principle and caution, Justice Department officials under former President Joe Biden made a series of decisions that significantly delayed and ultimately may have hampered the federal criminal investigations into President Donald Trump, according to a new book.
The slow decision-making at the top of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Justice Department affected two major probes into Trump after he lost the White House in 2020: whether he illegally possessed and obstructed the retrieval of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence, and whether he conspired illegally to overturn the 2020 election.
It really wasnt though. Garland was chosen for a reason. They had more than enough evidence that he caused an insurrection. They absolutely could have landed him in prison had they actually wanted to.
They had more than enough evidence after they concluded a long and detailed investigation, as well as several other, interconnected lawsuits. It doesn’t matter how obvious it “looks” to everyone on the outside…if you want it to stick in court, there needs to be no doubt. That means hard evidence. No theories. No speculation. No assumptions. They needed documented receipts.
When it comes to incitement, it is extremely hard to prove intent. Every one of the speeches given that day, before that mob descended on the Capitol building, was very carefully worded to allow for enough deniability, that none of those people could be held responsible in court.
Which meant they had to get proof that Trump knew about, and was directly involved in, the fake electors scam they tried to pull. First they went after the fake electors themselves. Those poor idiots were more than happy to point the finger at Kenneth Chesebro, who orchestrated their participation. After that, they had enough evidence to convict Chesebro of carrying out the plan…but they still needed him to flip on Trump in order to prove that Trump himself, was an active part of it.
Too many people who work for Trump seem perfectly willing to take the fall for him, despite the fact that he has a long track record of throwing them under the bus as soon as they get caught following his orders. And it never actually came out whether or not Chesebro was actually going to testify against Trump, but given the fact that he was only sentenced to probation, I strongly suspect he cut a deal.
The problem with all this, is the fact that it takes time for all these other cases to go through the courts, before they had a clear lock on Trump himself. Even if they could have started the process sooner…which isn’t necessarily the case…it still would have taken years to bring Trump in front of a judge for his part in all of it.
And they nearly did. If it wasn’t for the Supreme Court forcing Jack Smith to have to re-file the charges at the last minute, he would have been on trial in the summer of 2024…right in the middle of his campaign.