While Donald Trump has repeatedly smashed through the guardrails of our democracy, Merrick Garland has refused to repair them by holding the most powerful domestic terrorist in history, and his co-conspirators, criminally accountable for their actions.
With just 7 months remaining before a presidential election in which the survival of American democracy is at stake, our county can no longer endure the cowardly, insurrection-enabling of the weakest Attorney General in modern history.
For the sake of our nation, Merrick Garland must take the actions necessary to protect the 2024 presidential election from a second Trump coup conspiracy, or resign and allow President Biden to appoint a strong prosecutor to take his place.
That’s why our new Stop Trump Dictatorship PAC recently launched a petition demanding that Garland do his job or resign.
These are the five urgent actions that are needed to counter Trump’s 2024 coup redo:
1. Immediately indict the six still unnamed co-conspirators in Trump’s federal January 6 trial, presumed to be Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Jeffrey Clark and Kenneth Chesebro. Schedule and try this case separately from Trump ASAP. This was evidence and testimony exposing the criminaly of Trump’s coup conspiracy are known to voters prior to this November’s election
2.Indict Congress Members Paul Gosar and Andy Briggs, who conspired to introduce the forged election certificates in the House of Representatives on January 6, 2021.
3. Federally prosecute, as domestic terrorists, all threats made against election officials and Trump-related trial officials anywhere in the United States.
4. Plan and implement the deployment of federal marshals, F.B.I agents and National Guard forces to protect polling places and election officials this November.
5. Initiate a federal prosecution of every individual in seven states who signed their names to fake election certificates sent to Congress.
The clear purpose of Trump’s January 6 coup attempt was to direct the mob that he incited to storm the Capitol and “fight like hell,” so they could stop congressional certification of the vote.
Trump’s Capitol assault mob inflicted more injuries on American law enforcement officers than any riot in history.
Had Garland begun prosecuting Trump as soon as he took office on March 11, 2021, Donald Trump would almost certainly be in prison right now. Not inciting a second coup.
Garland promised to hold “all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.”
Then Garland refused to approve the open and shut prosecution of dozens of fake electors who signed their names to fraudulent certification documents.
And, worst of all, knowing full well of the timetable required to convict a former president, he waited 20 months to conclude that Trump’s actions merited the naming of a special prosecutor.
As though Garland was not sure whether Trump was responsible for the January 6 attack, or whether his coup attempt was illegal.
According to a Washington Post exposé, “the attorney general’s determination to steer clear of any claims of political motive has chilled efforts to investigate the former president. “You couldn’t use the T word,” said one former Justice official briefed on prosecutors’ discussions.”
The absence of a Trump criminal conviction for January 6 has helped Trump convince 65% of Republicans of his enduring Big Lie: that Biden stole the 2020 election. As a result, many of them are also convinced that the January 6 “protest” was necessary-and might be necessary again next January if Trump does not win.
And so, less than seven months before November 5, the very situation that Liz Cheney recently warned against is about to happen. “It cannot be the case,” she said, “that a president of the United States can attempt to overturn an election and seize power and that our justice system is incapable of holding a trial and holding him to account before the next election.”
Even Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Tribe, a past supporter, has lost confidence in Merrick Garland.
In a tweet response to me on March 31, Tribe publicly called Garland, his former student, “a tragically weak Attorney General pitted against the most dangerous coup attempt in our entire history. Garland is a nice, smart and principled man but one wholly unsuited to his job. I plead guilty for having overestimated him massively.”
After years of expressing confidence in Garland, Tribe, was responding to my comment about the April 1, 100th anniversary of a German court letting Hitler off easily for his Nazi Beer Hall Putsch, in which four law enforcement officers and 16 people were killed.
The lesson of history bears repeating. I wrote, “Had the presiding judge not bent a felony deportation law in Hitler’s favor, WWII would never have happened.”
One of Hitler’s greatest worries at his 1924 trial was that he would be deported back to his native Austria. But the trial judge refused to apply the law to a man who, the weak judge stated, “thinks and feels like a German, as Hitler does.”
The judicial system performs a vital role in a free society. It provides accountability, through trials for the accused, and punishment for criminals found guilty. This demonstrates that the law has teeth” and provides a much-needed deterrent effect to those considering similar crimes.
Garland continues to refuse to federally prosecute fake certifiers in seven states, despite long ago pleas from state attorney generals to do so. The Attorney General seems to be signaling that they can feel free to do the same thing on January 6, 2024.
It’s time to face the hard truth: Merrick Garland’s inaction has, and continues to, enable Trump’s insurrection. He needs to do what is necessary to defend the 2024 election, or resign and make way for someone who will.
