Charges Merrick Garland delayed or dragged his feet on the investigation are proven false in the Smith report

[bigtree]

...they persisted because most of the substantive details of the investigation initiated by AG Garland's prosecutors in 2021 were kept secret by DOJ, except for court filings and what the perps revealed.

Now we have a report in which Jack Smith defends the AG against those charges, outlining how delays which the myriad appeals and challenges made by the perps subpoenaed for evidence and testimony often stretched out for months and years, not always ovelapping, and stretching out for years, well into the Smith appointment with Garland prosecutors defending those key pieces of evidence and testimony in courts well into his term.

Politico touched on this yesterday:



You have to wonder what journos and pundits like Carol Leonning are thinking today, trying to decide whether to double down on their false reporting that there was some delay or indecision from the AG about proceeding to prosecute Trump and his henchmen, or equivocate.

Carol Leonnig @CarolLeonnig Jun 2023
Many people inside DOJ strongly believe this . As one told us - “without the Jan 6 committee I’m convinced there wouldn’t have been a DOJ investigation into Trump’s role.”

Like most of Garland's critics, she should actually read people like Marcy Wheeler who has spent the years since that intrepid WaPo reporter wrote the article that was repeated and embellished by countless people to subvert and demagogue the efforts of the AG, including notables like Weissmann who spouted off those exact lies about the Garland's efforts as if he had some inside knowledge of a secret investigatory process; he just read from her article and embellished her misinformation with derision and hyper-concern.

here's Marcy:

(Critics) complained today that DOJ pursued the money trail and suspected communications with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers immediately, both of which theories had solid evidence (likely arising from the mishandled Brandon Straka prosecution and the Owen Shroyer arrest) behind them. The money trail ended up being a dry hole; the comms angle ended up being inconclusive. But that’s the kind of thing Goodman and his ilk were demanding in real time — multiple prongs to pursue the case. Follow the money!

Instead, prosecutors’ most productive 2021 efforts appears to be getting an SDNY judge to allow DOJ to use the existing Special Master review for phones seized from Rudy Giuliani in April 2021 to prioritize obtaining the January 6 content. DOJ started with Co-Conspirator #1, and did so in a way that Trump had limited ability to obstruct. And from there, they seized one after another phone: John Eastman and Jeffrey Clark in June 2022, Scott Perry in August 2022, Boris Epshteyn and Mike Roman in September 2022, all of which would have had delays (not reflected in Jack Smith’s report because none of those have been unsealed) because of attorney-client, Speech and Debate, or technical exploitation issues, yet all of which would have been necessary given their reliance on encrypted apps. (This post argues that Smith likely didn’t get the content of Roman and Epshteyn’s phones until after he first indicted Trump.) You were never going to avoid getting the co-conspirator phones, because this coup was planned on encrypted apps and all of them fought disclosure. It appears that DOJ opportunistically seized the first of those on the first day there was a confirmed DAG to approve doing so. It is also clear that that wasn’t enough.

But if you’re going to make these complaints about what you read in Jack Smith’s report, you should note what else Smith said. The January 6 Committee work “comprised a small part of the Office’s investigative record,” but before Smith could use anything from J6C, prosecutors first had to “develop[] or verif[y those facts] through independent interviews and other investigative steps.”

The Office’s investigation included consideration of the report issued on December 22, 2022, by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, as well as certain materials received from the Committee. Those materials comprised a small part of the Office’s investigative record, and any facts on which the Office relied to make a prosecution decision were developed or verified through independent interviews and other investigative steps. During the prosecution of the Election Case, Mr. Trump alleged that the Select Committee and Special Counsel’s Office were one and the same and sought additional discovery about the Select Committee’s work. The district court rejected the claim. See ECF No. 263 at 47 (concluding that Mr. Trump has “not supplied an adequate basis to consider the January 6 Select Committee part of the prosecution team”). Regardless, the Office provided or otherwise made available to Mr. Trump in discovery all materials received from the Select Committee. See ECF No. 263 at 47 (“the Government states that it has already produced all the records it received from the Committee”).

We know from the immunity appendix that Jack Smith had productive follow-up interviews with Bill Barr, Ronna McDaniel, and Jason Miller, among others, to say nothing about more extensive cooperation with Eric Herschmann and Mike Pence’s privilege-waived interview(s).

But validating what J6C did could not start until J6C released transcripts in December 2022, after a 3-7 month delay.

more:https://www.emptywheel.net/2025/01/15/what-jack-smith-didnt-say-about-the-january-6-investigation/

thread:

Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney
NEW: Jack Smith defended Garland’s pace, laying out DOJ’s frenetic, secretive efforts to win privilege fights with recalcitrant witnesses — Scott Perry, Mike Pence, John Eastman — that took months.

More takeaways from the Smith report. w/ @joshgerstein

https://politico.com/news/2025/01/14/jack-smith-special-counsel-report-takeaways-00198252

related:

Merrick Garland is Getting a Bum Rap
The claim that he is responsible for Trump’s evasion of accountability is clearly wrong.
https://harrylitman.substack.com/p/merrick-garland-is-getting-a-bum