While he’s been unfairly blamed by some progressives for not going after failed, one-term former President Donald Trump as his first order of business since being sworn in as attorney general, rest assured that Merrick Garland and prosecutors with the Justice Department are indeed taking a close look at possible federal crimes Trump can be charged with.
And now we have a former top DOJ official laying out a roadmap for Garland the Department of Justice to follow as it relates to the Mueller investigation and possible crimes detailed within the Mueller report.
Noah Bookbinder is a former prosecutor in the Department Of Justice’s Public Integrity Division. He currently works as executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW). And he has written a brilliant column published in USA Today that makes clear there’s plenty of fire where we see smoke as it relates to the Russia investigation.
In his op-ed, Bookbinder urges AG Garland to take another look at the Mueller investigation:
“Many of us have long suspected that Barr deliberately set out to spin the contents of the Mueller report and manufacture bogus legal analysis in order to protect Trump from facing consequences for the crimes laid out in the report. We now have proof that Barr did exactly that.”
Bookbinder also quotes a letter signed by 1,000 former federal prosecutors which reads in part:
“The conduct of President Trump described in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report would, in the case of any other person not covered by the Office of Legal Counsel policy against indicting a sitting president, result in multiple felony charges for obstruction of justice.”
But the most powerful portion of Bookbinder’s piece is saved for the conclusion. He writes:
“There is vast evidence that Donald Trump committed crimes. Time, and litigation, have removed both the legal protection he had as president and the illusory claims of exoneration spun by Barr. Now is the moment for America to see equal justice in action. It’s time to finish what Mueller started.”
Those among you who may have given up on Merrick Garland need to cut him some slack. He’s a good man who believes in the rule of law. And that alone is very bad news for lifetime crooks like Donald Trump and his handpicked puppet, Bill Barr.