DOJ did more than just indict GOP Rep. George Santos. They also unintentionally indicted Merrick Garland.

Garland is failing us

The DOJ this week did more than just indict GOP Rep. George Santos. They also unintentionally indicted Merrick Garland for his failure to swiftly charge Donald Trump.  After all, it took less than five months from the first media reports of Santos potentially engaging in wrongdoing to him being indicted for 13 crimes. In contrast, it’s been more than two years and five months since Trump’s attempted coup and his incitement of the Jan 6 attack, yet he has not been charged with even one crime.

Look at the timeline.

Nov 8, 2022: Santos was elected to Congress on Nov 8, 2022.

Dec 19, 2022: The NY Times published the blockbuster story that Santos has literally fabricated his entire life story—from where he went to school to where he worked and more. Beyond the fact checking of Santos’ fantastical life story, the Times article raised red flags that Santos may have engaged in illegal conduct, such as with statements on his congressional disclosure forms about the mysterious source of a $700,000 loan he made to his campaign.

Dec 28, 2022:  Just nine days after the NY Times article was published, CBS News reported that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation into Santos. As CBS News reported at the time: “CBS News sources say prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York are looking into his finances, including financial disclosure filings.”

May 9, 2023: A federal grand jury sitting in Central Islip, New York indicted George Santos for 13 crimes, as the DOJ’s press release explains.  The following day the charges were made public.

To sum up: In less than five months from the NY Times article first flagging Santos’s possible wrongdoing, he was indicted for numerous crimes.

And to be clear, the charges against Santos are not about one lie or one crime. Rather as DOJ explained, Santos “engaged in multiple fraudulent schemes.” Specifically, the DOJ indicted Santos for three different criminal schemes.

The first was a “Fraudulent Political Contribution Solicitation Scheme.” In this scheme, Santos allegedly directed “Person #1” to “falsely tell donors that…their money would be used to help elect Santos to the House, including by purchasing television advertisements.” Instead, Santos allegedly used much of the money for personal expenses, including buying designer clothing, paying down debt and making a car payment.

The DOJ labeled the second bucket of Santos’s crimes as being part of his, “Unemployment Insurance Fraud Scheme.” Despite having a full-time job, Santos repeatedly filed claims for unemployment. “As a result, Santos allegedly fraudulently received more than $24,000 in unemployment insurance benefits," per DOJ.

In the third alleged scheme—"False Statements to the House of Representatives” -- Santos misled the House and the public about his financial situation during his two congressional campaigns, the Justice Department said.

In sum, Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. Santos faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the most serious charges.

Again, that entire investigation from start to finish took less than 5 months. The message sent by DOJ’s swift action with Santos is that they take corruption by elected officials very seriously and will promptly investigate and charge those who commit such crimes. That is how you deter future George Santos type misconduct.

In contrast, it’s been more than two years and five months since Trump attempted his coup and incited the Jan 6 attack on our Capitol.  The message sent by Garland is the opposite of what DOJ did with Santos. Garland is telling Trump and other elected officials you can attempt to end our democratic Republic yet still walk free years later—and even run for President!

The key dates in regard to Garland’s abject failure are as follows:

March 11, 2021: Garland was sworn in on as Attorney General. He should have made investigating not just the attackers who waged Jan 6 but investigating Trump a priority.  Without Trump, there is no Jan 6 attack.

As a reminder, less than two weeks before Garland was sworn in, Trump made his first post Jan 6 appearance on Feb 28, 2021, at CPAC. It was clear Trump was already considering a run for 2024 as headlines noted at the time: “Trump teases 2024 presidential run in lie-filled CPAC speech.” If Garland was concerned that Trump might be running in 2024, he should have appointed a special counsel in early 2021, not wait until November 2022 as he did.

March 28, 2022: Federal Judge David Carter finds evidence of Trump’s criminality when considering a motion filed by Trump’s lawyer John Eastman to shield his emails from the Jan 6 House committee.  For example, Judge Carter wrote, “Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.” That is a felony under US law and hundreds of people involved in Jan 6 have already been charged and/or convicted of that very crime.

Judge Carter also wrote Trump and his lawyer had “launched a campaign to overturn a democratic election, an action unprecedented in American history,” adding, “it was a coup in search of a legal theory.” And in a bone-chilling passage, the judge explained that if Trump and Eastman’s “plan had worked, it would have permanently ended the peaceful transition of power, undermining American democracy and the Constitution.”

Yet as we know from public reporting, Garland still had not made Trump a focus of his investigation. That finally changed in June 2022—more than one year and half after Jan 6--when former Trump official Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the Jan 6 committee.

June 28, 2022:  Former Trump White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson gives riveting testimony before the Jan 6 committee that directly implicates Trump in the attempted coup and paints a vivid picture that he knowingly wanted the crowd on Jan 6 to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win.  On July 11, the NY Times reported that  DOJ had not as of then been robustly pursuing Trump but the Hutchinson testimony changed that. As the Times reported: “Hutchinson’s disclosures seemed to have opened a path to broaching the most sensitive topic of all: Mr. Trump’s own actions ahead of the attack.”

Nov 18, 2022: Garland finally appoints a Special Counsel, Jack Smith, after Trump formally announces that he is running in 2024--despite Trump actively holding campaign rallies since 2021.

Dec 19, 2022: The Jan 6 House committee referred Trump to DOJ to be prosecuted for four crimes: 1. Obstruction of an official proceeding; 2. Conspiracy to defraud the United States, 3. Conspiracy to make a false statement and, 4. Incitement, rebellion or insurrection.

The Jan 6 committee summed it up so well Trump’s culpability this line in their report: “The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Since Garland took over DOJ in March 2021, his offices have prosecuted hundreds of defendants in connection with Jan 6. This includes very complex cases such as charging and convicting the leaders of the Trump loving Proud Boys and Oath Keepers with “Seditious Conspiracy.”  In the most recent case, four members of the Proud Boys were convicted after a more than four-month trial where federal prosecutors laid out that the Proud Boys were animated by Trump and his election lies after the 2020 defeat.

It appears from reporting that Special Counsel Jack Smith is thoroughly investigating Trump—including recently expanding the investigation into Trump’s possible federal wire fraud crimes for fundraising based on Trump’s 2020 election lies.

But it’s too late. Garland has failed our nation by not promptly charging Trump after Jan 6 with even one crime to make it clear that if anyone attempts a coup or incites an attack on our Capitol, they will be swiftly held accountable.  

Instead, Trump is out on the campaign trial spewing election lies and defending the Jan 6 terrorists as he lays the groundwork for autocracy. If Trump wins in 2024, historians will view Garland’s failure to swiftly hold Trump accountable as the primary reason for the demise of our Republic and the ushering in of fascism. That is, of course, if historians are allowed to write such articles and books under a Trump regime.

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