DOJ and The Federal Justice System Let Us Down

The Supreme Court Has Lost Legitimacy But So Has DOJ and the Federal Judiciary

We all witnessed the attack on the Capitol on January 6, and we all heard Trump’s Speech on the Ellipse when he issued a Call to Arms to his supporters to march to the Congress and take back our country, meaning preventing the certification of Joe Biden as president. We all also saw the boxes of national security documents that Trump kept in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom and on a stage at Trump’s club.

We saw Trump’s criminal interference with Biden’s election by use of his Proud Boys Shock Troops to attack the Capitol and attempt to do violent harm to VP Mike Pence and Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. We saw Trump’s refusal to return national security documents to the National Archives. We saw that Trump kept some national security documents in his office, and some were strewn on the floor.

We saw Trump aides loading boxes on planes for shipping to Trump’s Bedminster, NJ golf course, and we wondered if those boxes contained additional national security documents. We did learn that at a meeting with a writer and book publisher at Bedminster, Trump waived around a military plan for attacking Iran.

But despite all of these events done in plain view, AG Garland and DOJ did not start any real criminal investigation of Trump until after the House January 6 Committee did live television broadcast hearings and presentation of evidence to the American people. Even then, DOJ’s investigation appeared lackluster and disorganized. It was not until Jack Smith was appointed as Special Prosecutor on November 18, 2022 that DOJ began conducting an intensive investigation of Trump’s attempted coup as president and his withholding of national security documents. This was 23 months after the events.

By giving Jack Smith such a late start and the Trump lawyers doing everything possible to delay any federal court inquiry into Trump’s actions, the cases were continually suffering from time deadlines. When Trump’s lawyers filed a Motion for a Stay in the Supreme Court, DOJ told the Court to treat it as a certiorari petition on immunity, and the Court agreed but then put it on a slow track. DOJ did not ask to have the case expedited.

Then there was the national security documents case where Judge Aileen Cannon was assigned, and she began her slow, plodding consideration of so many motions that it took months to sort it all out. Judge Cannon was obviously partial to Trump with many strange rulings in Trump’s favor. The case was pending over a year when Judge Cannon ruled that the Special Counsel was not lawfully empowered, in a ruling that contradicted prior Supreme Court and many lower court decisions. But Judge Cannon was determined to dismiss the case even in an opinion contrary to precedent.

I, together with many others, filed Disciplinary Complaints about Judge Cannon with the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council, but my complaint was dismissed without explanation.

Finally, the Supreme Court issued the highly dubious decision on the Trump immunity case holding that Trump had broad immunity for official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts. The January 6 insurrection case was then returned to Judge Chutkan, the trial judge, and she attempted to review the claims to make decisions on whether various acts were official or unofficial.

But before Judge Chutkan could make a ruling and set a trial date and before the Eleventh Circuit issued a ruling on the appeal from Judge Cannon, Trump won the 2024 presidential election. Trump has vowed to dismiss the Special Prosecutor and can then have his Attorney General dismiss the cases.

Reports now say that DOJ is looking for a way to put the cases on hold, but Trump will have them dismissed.

So, for two major crimes, Trump will not be prosecuted. Officials have been convicted of federal crimes by retaining a few documents, and some got significant jail time. But Trump will skate off without a trial and no punishment for two major crimes committed in plain view.

And, AG Garland said, no one is above the law (except Donald Trump). The slow prosecutor loses the wriggling worm. Is this Justice in America?