The Political Education of Merrick Garland - Part II

or what Donald Trump's lawyers are not telling him

Donald Trump, his lawyers, and legal apologists keep forgetting that Merrick Garland was a federal appeals court judge for 24 years. They also seem to not know at all that he was a federal prosecutor before becoming Attorney General.

Garland worked at the Department of Justice for over eight years. The guy went after D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing case, Ted Kaczynski, and most famously, Timothy McVeigh — the Oklahoma City bomber. He is not a lightweight.

Of course, if Donald Trump took anyone giving him the “legally, you’re screwed” advice seriously, he’d be in less trouble.

Cable news lit up with legal experts aghast over Judge Cannon’s order granting Trump a “special master” and enjoining the government from continuing its investigation. At FoxNews, which is a cable entertainment network, their legal experts were acting as if a ground rule double was a home run.

Merrick Garland asked for a partial stay of the order. When Judge Cannon asked Team Trump to assent to a partial stay, legal experts stated the obvious — Cannon wants to disown as much of her ruling as she can.

Christopher Webb🇺🇸VOTE @cwebbonline

ICYMI- late last night, Judge Aileen Cannon responded to the DOJ motion. She’s trying to take the off-ramp they provided her. This is something 👀

Barb McQuade @BarbMcQuade

DOJ has given Judge Cannon a semi face-saving option by asking her to carve out classified documents from the special master’s review. Assessment of damage to our national security requires FBI access to these documents. Judge should run to take this option.

When Donald Trump was president, he chose Attorney Generals who he expected to do his bidding with question. Neither Jeff Sessions, who was a Republican Senator from Alabama (not exactly heavy lifting politically), nor William Barr, whose corruptability¹ and questionable ethics² knew few bounds³, mastered the ability to tell Trump "No" very well. Just like all of Trump's other lawyers.

Joe Biden, on the other hand, chose an apolitical Attorney General who has shifted from the relatively quiet life on the federal bench to the political big leagues extremely well.

In baseball, great managers usually know when a hitter is about to go yard. Right now, Merrick Garland is looking like Matt Stairs.⁴

1. https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/19/opinion/essay-the-patsy-prosecutor.html

2. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-holder-william-barr-is-unfit-to-be-attorney-general/2019/12/11/99882092-1c55-11ea-87f7-f2e91143c60d_story.html

3. https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/1100-doj-officials-call-william-barr-resign/story?id=69030388

4. Stairs, who once played for my beloeved Phillies, holds the record for pich-hit home runs.