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Merrick Garland

Dorothy’s Hunt for the Wicked Witch of the West Wing: An Update

February 16, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Will the wings of Trump's minions be clipped?

Dorothy’s hunt for the Wicked Witch of the West Wing continues. Today was not a decisive day one way or another that many anticipated or hoped for. No knockout punch was delivered. No knock downs occurred. The bucket of water has not been thrown. The time for singing “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead” has not arrived. The waiting continues.

Regardless of any legal principles involved, there is great skepticism that a wealthy white male can ever can be brought to justice anyway. In this particular case, there also is great skepticism about this individual ever even being charged with a crime given the numerous times before there has been a feeding frenzy about his imminent indictment that never seems to happen.

What can be said given the events of the last few days?

GEORGIA ON MY MIND

Although no names were mentioned in the report released today, it is still several conclusions still can be reached.

1. There are named people in the portions not released.
2. Some if not all of them are going to be indicted.
3. The release of that report and the indicting of those individuals seems imminent, as in days and not weeks or months.
4. Besides the indictments directly related to the attempt to steal the election, there also will be charges of perjury. Apparently the equivalent of a jury in numbers and as a cross-section of the community already determined that one or more people lied under oath. This development adds a new wrinkle to the proceedings. It puts witnesses on notice that no matter how clever they and their lawyers are in crafting dishonest answers, a jury is quite capable of discerning that dishonesty. That means regardless of the charges announced at the beginning of the trial, additional charges may be generated during the course of the trial. Perjury charges put witnesses on notice that when they think they are being crafty they may in fact be digging themselves deeper into a financial and legal hole. That may encourage more people to plead the 5th or to not even testify in their own defense.

We are getting closer to the first moment of truth. There is a lot to be said for not indicting the Wicked Witch of the West Wing in the initial indictments. That minimizes his ability to slow things down with frivolous lawsuits that courts are weary of since he has not been indicted. It also allows time for the people charged for a crime initiated at the hand of the Wicked Witch of the West Wing to re-assess their willingness to pay the price for the crime while he escapes scot free. The saga continues.

THE BELTWAY HIGH SPEED CHASE

Meanwhile in Washington, the investigation of the Wicked Witch of the West Wing appears to be barreling along. Like the January 6 House Select Committee, it too, has a deadline. The campaign for 2024 already is underway. Speaking now as a civilian, I would say Smith has until this summer to put up or shut up – at least for Mar-a-Largogate.

Still, things seem to be happening even if we don’t know all the details. Subpoenas have been issued for the former Vice President and Chief of Staff. That means in typical Mafioso case fashion, the prosecution has worked his way up the chain of command until he has now reached the inner circle. The Flying Monkeys are having their wings clipped. Soon they will be sitting ducks. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel if I may mix my metaphors.

One might suspect that some of the secret cases now before the judges may involve people we have not heard much about lately. People like Steve Bannon. People like Scott Perry. People like John Eastman. People like Jeffrey Clark. Some of them may be snagged in the Georgia case.

Here is where there will be a lot of doubt about whether a wealthy white man can be held to justice even if he is not the President.

BARR AND DURHAM MADE A MOCKERY OF THE RULES I WROTE

So wrote Neal Katyal in an op-ed piece in The New York Times today. He seems irked to say the least about how the rules for the Special Counsel have been trashed by these two individuals. With Barr, the politicization of the Department of Justice by the President has been well-known since even before the Mueller report was issued. That in itself raises three immediate questions:

1. Will the House Republicans who claim to be interested in the corruption of the politicization of the Department of Justice even investigate these people? – Unlikely no matter how much the Democrats push for it. On the other hand, the Inspector General seems like a better path to investigation.

2. Will the current Attorney General act against John Durham following the guidelines presented by Neal Katyal in his op-ed piece? – This is quite possible. Durham is obligated to produce a final report anyway. At this point, Durham may realize that he has sacrificed a lifetime of credibility and reputation as a reputable investigator and now has only one chance to salvage his tattered legacy.

3. What will happen to the ten obstruction charges identified by Mueller and obscured by Barr? There is no problem about indicting a sitting President any more. As in the previous item, Merrick Garland has a decision to make.

Despite the hullabaloo about the events today over the Georgia case and the revelation of new subpoenas for people very high up in the criminal conspiracy and for the secret cases, there still is a great deal of uncertainty about what will happen. In the meantime, the clock keeps ticking; and there are limits to human patience. If these investigations turn into Ph.D. theses that take forever to complete, then by the time they are done, the country will have moved on.

Day 1: Cheney Skewers Trump – DeSantis Flotilla Smells Blood in the Water

June 15, 2022
by Peter Feinman
DeSantis smells blood in the water. Thank you Liz.

It is not the Mueller Report. That report became the Great Disappointment. All that time. All that effort. All that anticipation. And for what? A dull boring presentation and report that led to nothing thanks in part to Attorney General Bill Barr who had not yet seen the light. Also the format led to numerous opportunities for Congressional Trumpicans to bloviate hot-air nonsense to their hearts content. Thanks to the shortsightedness of the would-be future Speaker, the House Select Committee was able to function as a responsible entity. It shows what Congress is capable of when it focuses on getting the job done and the job is working for the American people and not themselves.

LIZ CHENEY: A STAR IS BORN

For Liz Cheney, it is as if all her life she was waiting and preparing for this moment. The fate of the American democracy literally is on the line. We survived a close call after the 2020 election – not realizing how close it was to ending – and we still face a moment of truth in the 2024 election, but Cheney provides hope that America will emerge triumphant from the January 6 Day of Infamy. Unfortunately, the futures of both Ukraine and the United States are on the line and both Putin and Trump are determined to prevail.

Cheney already has earned a place in the history books. She has done so in a literal sense. Her opening argument will join the ranks of the Lincoln-Douglas debates for theater and brilliance … and this time we have a visual record and not just the printed word. Her words will become standard reading in law classes in how to prepare an opening argument for a jury trial. She will be studied by debate teams. She will be remembered in American history classes.

Think of all the remarks raised against her. Think of all the comments/tweets by Trump, McCarthy, Jordan, Taylor Greene, Gaetz, and the other assorted characters that populate the former Republican Party. As the students of history, law, and politics in the future study and contrast her presentation with the sad, pathetic remarks by her adversaries, they will laugh in amazement that such simple-minded imbeciles actually could be in positions of power. Of course, this assumes the America remains a democracy otherwise all bets are off.

AN AUDIENCE OF ONE  

The audience for Cheney and the House Select Committee is not simply the American people. When people audition on Foxhub, they are speaking to an audience of one. Similarly, here, Cheney and the House Select Committee have one person in mind during their presentations and for the final report. That one person is not the current President of the United States or even the former President who is the target of the investigation. Obviously, the one person is the Attorney General.

So far and in his own way, Merrick Garland has been as big a disappointment to the House Select Committee as Barr was with the Mueller report. To be fair, the times they are a changing. Like a turtle finally sticking its head out of its shell, Garland appears to be elevating his position in the investigation. The round-up of hundreds of lesser figures appears to have reach its limit. The low-hanging fruit has and is being prosecuted. Many have pleaded guilty. Now it is time to move up the chain of command, to indict the people who initiated and organized the multiple attempts (7) to over through the government and steal the election. At this point, it does seem that the Attorney General is listening.

Unfortunately, the clock keeps ticking. While the House Select Committee will have completed its work prior to the 2022 Congressional election that may not be enough. Preventing the Trumpicans from shutting down the committee in the new Congress is insufficient. The information collected needs to be turned over to the DOJ prior to that. Furthermore the DOJ needs to act before the campaign season picks up in earnest. For the sake of saving the American democracy, We the People need the co-conspirators to be indicted so they are a campaign issue (In the 2022 Congressional Elections, How Many Candidates Will Have Been Indicted?  December 22, 2021). Taking action in January is too late.

THE STAIN OF DISHONOR

From time to time, I have written about the opportunities to be a profile in courage. Think of the people who have had the chance: Mike Pence, Sean Hannity, Kevin McCarthy and the list goes on and on. One desperate Hail Mary was that there would come a time when the Congressional closet Republicans would finally shed their fears and publicly embrace the truth that they know in their hearts to be true: the President was “bat crazy” as Hannity delicately put it. As day after day, week after week, and month after month passed by, the chances of these closet Republicans overcoming their fear of being mocked as “weak RINO” seemed slimmer and slimmer. The last chance was when they would have nothing to lose. The primary season would be over so they could not be replaced. That final moment of truth is fast approaching as Cheney said:

I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible: There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.  

When the Unpresidential Library is built and the wall of dishonor is created the names of many of Cheney’s Republican colleagues will be on it. The House Select Committee is their last chance to redeem themselves.