Merrick Garland – Page 2 – Deep Left Field

This afternoon, Attorney General Merrick Garland made brief remarks to the media regarding the search warrant that was served at Donald Trump’s Palm Beach golf club, Mar-a-Lago, on Monday.

During that press briefing, Garland noted that the Justice Department is moving to unseal the warrant and a redacted property list that shows what items were seized by the FBI.

Afterwards, CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said the AG had just called Trump’s bluff:

“We essentially saw Merrick Garland call Donald Trump’s bluff. So essentially Merrick Garland said, ‘Okay, Donald Trump, you’re not going to release them, we’re going to do it, we’re going to put those documents in front of the American public.'”

If that information is indeed unsealed, Honig explained what he expects to see:

“The warrant typically will list logistical information, place to be searched, usually a general description of items to be searched for, the name of the judge, a deadline by which DOJ has to execute the search.
“But it also sometimes has what we call an attachment. That attachment typically will list the statutes, the laws that DOJ believes it has probable cause to believe were violated. So that’s going to be the first thing I look for. I’m going to look right at that attachment and say do they list the statutes, that’s going to tell us what laws could be at play here.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kanYEMGvriU&feature=emb_logo

It should also be noted that Trump and his attorneys can file a motion to keep the Justice Department from unsealing the search warrant and other materials. Don’t be surprised if they do exactly that, because Trump knows the minute the details of what documents he was keeping at Mar-a-Lago is made public, his guilt will be confirmed for all the world to see. And that’s his worst nightmare.

Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy is one of the most annoying and arrogant people in Congress, and he made a complete ass of himself on Tuesday during a hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, proving just how completely clueless many in the GOP are when it comes to the issue of law enforcement.

Kennedy began his remarks by attacking Garland:

“I think the Justice Department is losing. I think you’re losing on crime. I think you’re losing on drugs. I think you’re losing on immigration. I think you’re losing on Chirenese espionage.”

From there, Kennedy asked about dirty cops:

“Let me start with crime. What percentage of cops in America do you think are bad cops?”

Garland:

“A very small percentage.”

Rather than let the attorney general continue his remarks, Kennedy interrupted to ask:

“How small? Is it less than 10%?”

AG Garland responded:

“Yes, let me be clear. We believe that most police officers follow the Constitution. Most police departments do. All police officers, I believe, want to work in police departments that follow constitutional policing requirements.”

Next, Kennedy asked about stop and frisk, though he was hardly able to call it by its proper name:

“Why doesn’t the Justice Department support stop question, and frisk?”

Garland replied:

“I don’t know that the Justice Department has a position. This is a state and local role normally”

Rather than accept that response, Kennedy asked:

“Why doesn’t the Justice Department aggressively encourage law enforcement officials to use that technique? It’s been declared constitutional as you know?”

The AG again noted that stop and frisk is left to local law enforcement, which led to an extended rant from Sen. Cornpone:

“Here’s what I’m asking. Let’s take Chicago, where you have, we haven’t made any inroads and stopping the killing. Chicago is now the world’s largest outdoor shooting range. We know that a lot of the shootings come from gangs. Why wouldn’t you want to call the police chief, the mayor in Chicago, and say, ‘look, you know who these gang members are. When you have reasonable suspicion, and objective standard, more than just a hunch, why don’t you aggressively stop, question, and frisk these gang members?’ You get guns off the street. You’ll get drugs off the street and you get at a lot of gang members off the street. You’ll stop people killing each other. Why won’t you do that?”

Garland patiently tried to explain:

“The best way for the federal government to stop violent crime is to work at each local level and determine and let the state and locals determine what the best use of their –“

Kennedy rudely interrupted the attorney general yet again:

“I’m sorry to interrupt. I’m trying to get some answers. Why won’t you do that?”

Garland answered:

“Because there is no one solution fits all that the federal government can suggest to state and local law enforcement.”

Someone needs to explain some basic facts to Sen. Kennedy. Then again, as stupid as he seems to be, all the explanations in the world would probably leave him nonplussed.