The picture of a hesitant Justice Department runs contrary to the GOP allegation that the indictments of Trump were the product of a Democrat-led plot.

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.

  • Taldan@lemmy.world
    22·
    1 day ago

    Justice Department officials chose to move cautiously and slowly over concerns about the implications of investigating a former and possibly future president, taking  pains to insulate the probes from even the appearance of politics

    I don’t buy this. It doesn’t take a poli sci expert to know that Trump would make the probes political no matter what. The Justice Department would have to be incompetent if they actually believed this

    For instance, it took more than a year after Trump was defeated for the Justice Department to convene a grand jury to hear evidence in the alleged criminal scheme by Trump to use fake electors to overturn the results of the 2020 election

    This is the part that really kills the “caution” excuse. Why wait a year? The only possible excuses I can think of are: Incompetence or the rich and powerful protecting a fellow rich and powerful person, even if he is from across the aisle

    I’d be interested to see if Trump ever goes after anyone involved. Jack Smith, the Biden family, Garland, etc. He’s gone after a lot of people that criticized him like John Bolton or James Comey. He’s also going after Letitia James. But not people involved in the Justice Department probe that was intentionally slow-rolled

    I suppose that does bring a potential 3rd reason: Fear of reprisal. I’d put that under incompetence though. If you put the criminals in jail, it’s a whole lot harder for them to punish you for investigating them