Is Merrick Garland all that bad?
Is Merrick Garland all that bad?
Marcy Wheeler explains, and also offers more about the Trump administration surveillance of members of Congress and their families.
Appears in this episode
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I’ve been very hard on Merrick Garland, particularly after the news of the DOJ defense of Trump in the E. Jean Carroll defamation and rape case, something most legal scholars are baffled about. And there are other concerns. And I’m with those legal scholars and experts who share them.
Marcy Wheeler, who I interview often, agrees with the concerns, but also sees more nuance and offered it on my SiriusXM program yesterday. A long-time, indispensable national security and civil liberties journalist at her site EmptyWheel, she made feel a little less worried in what Garland is doing, including underscoring the Rudy Giuliani investigation, the insurrections investigations and other investigations into Trump World. And she cautions that things take times.
Marcy is by no means an apologist for the DOJ — any administration’s DOJ — so I trust her take. I’d rather Biden have chosen someone else as attorney general, but at the same time it may not be as bad as it all seems, and we may see investigations ramp up. We get into it all later in this interview, so listen in.
Early on in the interview, Marcy explains the true nature of the Trump administration’s surveillance of members of Congress, obtaining metadata from House members Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell, their staffs and their families, and perhaps others, in a unprecedented abuse of power. We also learned the DOJ obtained the data of White House Counsel Don McGahn and his wife.
But again, Marcy offers details and nuance which explain a lot. Those doing the searching — and Jeff Sessions, Bill Barr and Rod Rosenstein claim they knew nothing about it — didn’t apparently know whose information they were getting, until later when the numbers matched names of prominent people. It was at that point that it should have been put under seal — and instead it was continued even after it turned up nothing.
Again, Marcy explains details you’re just not going to get in much of the media so listen in to what she has to say and let me know your thoughts.
Is Merrick Garland all that bad?
Is Garland All that bad? Well if you have to ask then the answer is probably Yes. Garland at best is a moderate/conservative Republican institutionalist. I said when he was appointed that he should not have been to pick but was total by many on the left to STFU and stop complaining. I was actually glad he didn't get selected to the SC because he was only selected with the recommendation of fright wing conservative and former Utah Sen Orrin Hatch and the GOP still wouldn't approve him. President Obama should have went liberal...no the liberal wouldn't have got approved either but President Obama should have known they had no intention of approving anyone. We need to stop worrying about Republicans. They campaign on and talk about appointing conservatives judges all the time. When was the last time you heard a Democrat campaign on or say they want to appoint/select LIBERAL judges?
Baloney, Merrick Garland is a wimp. #TraitorTrump had an attack dog Attorney General, and for the sake of CONTINUITY which the Dept. of Justice supposedly values above all things, including justice itself, then Pres. Biden needs his own attack dog as AG. There needs to be an aggressive clean sweep at DOJ and all areas of government infested by #TraitorTrump's allies. By being wimps, the Dems. will be outflanked and lose the 2022 elections and we will be plunged into autocracy again. We need aggressive Democrats pushing pushing pushing back against these fascist traitors at every level of government every single day. Anything less is inappropriate and ineffective.