Attorney General Merrick Garland would make a mistake by appointing a special advisor In response to Trump’s announcement of his candidacy for 2024.
Such a decision would give Trump control over the organization of further delays in any criminal investigation and possible criminal prosecution.
This may also be a factor in Trump’s decision on Whether and when to run Because he knows a candidate’s trial looks more political, which will lead him to announce sooner rather than later given the increased scrutiny by the Justice Department of both Trump’s role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol as well as Mar-a-Lago. Documents are important. But these are not even the worst reasons that could be wrong.
There are many reasons why hiring a private advisor now is wrong. For starters, it will inevitably lead to a delay in the process. The Office of Special Counsel requires time-consuming recruitment and hiring, and choosing who will be the special counsel is itself a process that takes valuable time away from the focus on the multiple investigations related to Trump. Such time would be wasted because no matter how much wisdom Garland puts the choice, that person would immediately be demonized by the right as a political hack.
Special counsel is not called for in these circumstances because there is no inherent conflict of interest with the Department of Justice investigating a former president as there is with an investigation with the current president.
Attorney General Merrick Garland
Kevin Deitch
In the past, special advisors or independent advisors were appointed when the Justice Department had to investigate members of the president’s inner circle or cabinet. For example, the Reagan era Iran / Contra . material The investigations, prosecutions, and convictions included Secretary of Defense Reagan as well as his National Security Adviser—none of the convictions survived because they were all overturned on appeal or the subject of a presidential pardon.
Likewise, Robert Mueller was aptly appointed to head the Russia investigation because Trump was the head during that investigation. But Trump is no longer president, so his criminal investigation and prosecution does not pose the dilemma of an executive police presence itself.
Although there is no conflict of interest, it is understood that Garland and senior Department of Justice officials have considered using federal law Permission to appoint a special advisor Because the law also considers investigations or prosecutions involving “exceptional circumstances” where “it would be in the public interest to appoint an outside special counsel.”
The unprecedented investigation and prosecution of a former president are clearly “exceptional circumstances”, but the time to appoint a special counsel would have been much earlierAnd the Nowhere near the midterm elections, particularly in response to the prospect of Trump announcing another presidential candidacy. This is because The timing of such a decision would make it an explicit political actJust the kind of Justice Department politicization that Merrick Garland has sought to avoid.
There is no doubt that Garland sought to depoliticize and rehabilitate the Justice Department’s image after Barr turned it into a political weapon for Donald Trump.
garland The Department of Justice renewed its commitment to the Hatch Act by banning all political activities by Justice Department political appointees until Election Day, reminding all Department of Justice employees of strict controls over their interactions with members of Congress and famously promising them to enforce the rule of law “without fear of favour.” But all this The effort may be undermined if he reacts to Trump’s declaration of himself as a presidential candidate by appointing a special counsel to take over the Trump investigation.
why? Because responding to a political declaration is a political act. The best way for any plaintiff to be apolitical is to investigate the crime and prosecute the perpetrators without indicating the timing of the elections or who is running in those elections. Merrick Garland and Justice Department officials are more than able to investigate and prosecute Donald Trump “without fear or favour.” Now they just have to do it.
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