It seems like nothing will ever come easily for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
This, of course, is the same man who in March 2016 became the only one since Reconstruction to be denied a hearing by the Senate after being nominated for the Supreme Court by a sitting President.
Garland, by all accounts is a distinguished, scholarly jurist highly qualified for the court, but he was a victim of an unprecedented attack from the hyper-polarized politics of the era. Republicans led by Mitch McConnell, shattered all existing norms of political behavior by refusing to take up Garland’s nomination until after the presidential election in November 2016.
By then, of course, Donald Trump was President, and he successfully nominated Neil Gorsuch instead of Garland for the empty Supreme Court seat and over the next four years was able to pack two more appointments to the court as well.
Flash forward to 2020. Joe Biden won election as President and appointed Garland as the Attorney General.
But before Biden could even be inaugurated, the Jan. 6th riot happened at the U.S. Capitol; Trump was impeached but not convicted for that; and the Justice Department opened multiple probes into Trump’s activities — most particularly for his role in inciting the riot.
And who is the guy with the thankless task of overseeing those investigations, including whether to prosecute the former president? None other than the same Merrick Garland.
To date, Garland has proceeded cautiously and methodically, not tipping his hand as to whether Trump will face justice for any of his alleged crimes. Nevertheless, the probe into the discovery of classified documents at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate generated tremendous political controversy. Republicans called it a witch hunt.
Now comes the revelation that Biden somehow also had classified documents at a private office and also in his garage.after leaving his job as Vice-President, although apparently not at the scale of Trump’s cache. Whatever, this messy complication now also falls to Garland to handle.
I have no idea what to make of all this beyond the observation some people have a lot of bad luck. I’m guessing that the Biden revelation probably means that Trump will not being prosecuted over his possession of classified documents — simply because it will be politically impossible. The Republicans would scream bloody murder, further polarizing an already dangerously contentious environment.
We should not envy Merrick Garland his fate in life. It would appear at the moment there is precious little chance he will ever achieve any measure of justice, legally or politically, against his tormentors.
Not even of the poetic kind.
LINKS:
VIDEO: Biden Addresses Classified Documents Found at Private Office (AP)
Biden ‘Surprised’ to Learn Classified Documents Were Found in Private Office (NYT)
Additional documents marked classified found in Biden's Wilmington garage (Politico)
Disgraced Rep. George Santos defiant after local GOP officials call for ‘immediate’ resignation over campaign lies (CNBC)
Rep. Santos served with formal ethics complaint (CBS)
Republicans Signal Cuts To Social Security, Medicare With New House Majority (HuffPost)
House Republicans form committee to investigate the government (WP)
Republicans controlling the U.S. House of Representatives voted to launch an investigation into what they term President Joe Biden's weaponization of the federal government, but Democrats branded it a partisan fishing expedition. (Reuters)
House Republicans to vote on bill abolishing IRS, eliminating income tax (Fox)
House Republicans turn their attention to restricting abortion rights (WP)
The Near-Implosion of Kevin McCarthy Offers Lessons for the Left (Politico)
Lawyers who enabled Trump in election plot face heightened risk of charges (Guardian)
FAA system outage causes thousands of flight delays and cancellations across the US (CNN)
Afghan women athletes barred from play, fear Taliban threats (AP)
How the Taliban’s ban on women aid workers could deepen Afghanistan’s crisis (Vox)
A Brazilian judge ordered the arrest of top security officials. Police have been accused of working with backers of far-right ex-president Jair Bolsonaro. They stormed the buildings of all three branches of government on Sunday. (WP)
Bolsonaro eyes return to Brazil as US stay pressures Biden (AP)
Russian and Ukrainian forces were engaged in intense fighting over the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine - a stepping stone in Moscow's push to capture the entire Donbas region - with the Russians appearing to have the upper hand. (Reuters)
Armenia cancels military drills of Russian-led alliance (Al Jazeera)
From Brexit to Regrexit (NPR)
Soaked and Battered by Repeating Rainstorms, California Girds for More (NYT)
Storms relentless as California drenching goes on (BBC)
Calif. storm updates: Nearly 37,000 evacuated from hardest-hit areas (SF Gate)
FDA vaccine advisers ‘disappointed’ and ‘angry’ that early data about new Covid-19 booster shot wasn’t presented for review last year (CNN)
Hearing Loss Linked to Dementia in Older Adults (Neuroscience News)
Twitter owner Elon Musk turned over access to internal company documents to a top source of vaccine misinformation who's been described as "the pandemic's wrongest man." Alex Berenson on Monday published a Substack article referencing the so-called Twitter Files, reprinting emails to Twitter’s team from Scott Gottlieb, who served as Food and Drug Administration commissioner in the Trump administration and joined Pfizer’s board in 2019. [HuffPost]
Madagascar faces millions of years of extinctions due to human activity, scientists say (ABC)
Lake Mead Water Levels Before and After Drought Is Sobering Shot of Future (Newsweek)
Coalition scrapped pesticide monitoring program that found residues 90 times the limit on strawberries (Guardian)
Coming soon: Beef, coffee, and chocolate, without a side of environmental destruction (Vox)
The US and the Holocaust, review: a masterpiece account of America’s close brush with Nazism (Telegraph)
Ranking all 14 NFL playoff teams by viability: Who's best positioned to reach Super Bowl 57? The 49ers. (USA Today)
NASA satellite discovers second Earth-sized planet in habitable zone (ABC)
Man Memorizes Several Awkward Remarks In Case Date Not Going Uncomfortably Enough (The Onion)
Democrats will not prosecute as Trump will split party with DeSantis. Prosecutions will fade away by new adversity diversion.