Trump's Trials - Attorney General Merrick Garland's legacy

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, NPR Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson looks at Attorney General Merrick Garland's legacy at the Justice Department. Much of that legacy will be scrutinized for how he handled federal criminal cases against former President Donald Trump and prosecutions of Jan. 6 defendants.Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Tetreault. Supreme Court justices have issued a major ruling and an election case. The Justice Department will be relentless in defending the right to vote. Will you accept the results of the election? If it's a fair and legal election, absolutely. Merrick Garland was tapped by Joe Biden to serve as attorney general only days after rioters ransacked the U.S. Capitol three years ago. And since then, Garland has had some of the biggest cases in the Justice Department's history land on his desk.

There's the prosecution of over 1,500 rioters for January 6th, two cases against former President Trump, an investigation into President Biden's possession of classified documents, and the cases against Biden's son, Hunter. Garland's approach to these historic cases has drawn criticism from both Republicans and Democrats. When we come back, NPR Justice correspondent, Kari Johnson, on Garland's legacy. On January 7, 2021, President-elect Joe Biden described his choice to lead the Justice Department as a man who embodies character and decency. For Attorney General of the United States, I nominate a man of impeccable integrity,

Judge Merrick Garland. Garland pledged to uphold the rule of law and restore the Justice Department's independence from the White House. He promised to be a lawyer for the people and not the president. Paul Butler's a former public corruption prosecutor. After Donald Trump's attorneys general were criticized for being biased in favor of Trump, it was important for the legitimacy of the Justice Department for President Biden to appoint a leader who was above reproach.

More than three years later, the way Garland drew the line between politics and law has somehow alienated both Biden and Trump and their supporters. Alex Aaronson is a former Justice Department lawyer and Sen. aide who's watched Garland and his work. He's really the consummate institutionalist. I think he came into his tenure as attorney general very much with that good faith intention to preserve those institutionalist values.

But Aaronson says Trump and some of his followers pose an ongoing threat, one that Biden and Garland misunderstood. I think like a lot of leading Democrats, establishment Democrats, he sort of tried to wave a magic wand and bring back these norms of the pre-Trump era. And that's just not a realistic approach after what happened during Trump. And that's not how norms work. When one party decides to abide by them, norms don't work that way. You know, I heard lots of people complaining about, you know, the problem with Merrick

Garland is that he's too deliberative. He's too judicious. And I was like, well, you know, he was a judge. Like, that's what they do. That's Melissa Murray. She's a law professor at New York University. He was put in that role for a particular reason. And given the mandate and the directive, she made clear a separation between the office and the presidency. I think she did that.

Biden and his team selected Garland, a respected federal appeals court judge with a 40-year track record, precisely because of his distance from politics. Peter Keisler is a longtime appellate lawyer who once served as acting attorney general in the George W. Bush years. He says Garland has been the perfect person to serve now because of his smarts, judgment,

and commitment to public service. Any attorney general is going to be called upon to make some very tough decisions on very controversial issues. That's the nature of the job. But the sheer number of legal problems that landed on Garland's desk is remarkable. The biggest federal criminal investigation in history. We're trying to get compliance, but this is now effectively a riot. Team 49 hours declaring it a riot. What turned out to be 1,500 cases against rioters who stormed the Capitol

and extremists who engaged in seditious conspiracy to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. Enrique Tarrio, once the top leader of the far-right extremist group, the Proud Boys, was just sentenced to 22 years in federal prison. An investigation of President Biden after classified documents were found in his home and office. The special counsel who said President Biden's age and memory factored into his decision not to charge the president for his retention of classified documents testified on Capitol Hill today. Indictments and convictions of Biden's son, Hunter, for gun and tax crimes.

And two indictments against Donald Trump. First for allegedly hoarding classified papers at his Florida resorts, and another for trying to cling to power in 2020 after he lost to Biden. A federal grand jury has voted to indict the former president for his attempt to overturn the results of an election he lost. Those cases against Trump represent the first time a former president has been charged with

federal crimes, though conservative courts have narrowed and constrained the actions against him. It's a major test for prosecutors, the courts, and the country. Neither case against the former president will go to trial before the November election, even though the attorney general once said this about the January 6th probe. This is the most urgent investigation in the history of the Justice Department. The investigation, marched along, focused mostly on the boots on the ground rather than the higher ups, until Garland's decision to appoint a special counsel

in November, 2022. That pace drew withering criticism. Tim Hafe served as chief investigative counsel to the House committee that investigated Trump's effort to cling to power. There were several pretty significant witnesses or witnesses who emerged as really central to our investigation that had not been interviewed

prior to the time that we reached out. Chuck Rosenberg is a former U.S. attorney. He says prosecutors face a much higher burden of proof than lawmakers do. The fact that DOJ works more slowly is both important and necessary and not at all surprising. Keisler, the appellate lawyer, says investigators had to take their time to search for possible financial ties among militia groups and people in Trump's inner circle, even if those allegations

produced no charges. So it's easy to say, once all the work is done, that you could have and should have done it more quickly by not spending time chasing down things that didn't pan out. But you can't know what you'll find and won't find until you first conduct a thorough investigation. In the end, the conservative Supreme Court waited months to review the January 6 case against Trump and then granted him substantial immunity from prosecution. If that case survives the election, it may not go to trial until 2026. Kristi Parker prosecuted civil rights cases

at the DOJ for 19 years. Parker says people may be asking too much of the justice system and the Justice Department. We can't rely on criminal investigations and prosecutions to do more than what they do, which is seek accountability for specific violations of law. They can't be relied on to address larger political problems. As for Merrick Garland, his time in the administration may be drawing to a close. He's hardly embraced the public speaking part of his job, but he made an exception this

month when he delivered a major speech about protecting DOJ investigations from political interference. Garland's voice broke with emotion as he defended the department and its people. Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this department to be used as a political weapon and our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics. It's now up to voters to decide whether to return former President Trump to the White House and by extension what happens to these fundamental norms that

Garland has embraced. Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. I'm Scott Tetra. Celebrate the women who shaped music history with NPR's new book, How Women Made Music. From Beyonce to Odetta, Joan Jett to Dolly Parton, this beautiful book is filled with interviews, original writing, illustrations, photos, and more. Also available as an audiobook featuring interview excerpts with legendary musicians.

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