I hate to C&P stuff  but sometimes it's the only choice I have.  I tried like hell to find a link for this article, but it kept saying OOPS! NO ARTICLE IS AVAILABLE and stuff like that.  But I did want my readers to be able to view this because it's really good info.  Stuff you sure as hell won't see on MAINSTREAM crap articles.  Mr. Turley is a professor of law TEACHER and I think I trust him more than many of our corrupt politicians to tell the truth and the WHOLE truth, for a fact.  There isn't one person on the dimwit side of the aisle who has the tenacity to tell the truth like THIS.  Keep reading, you'll be educated.

Enjoy!

****************************

Jonathan Turley, June 14, 2024

The Corruption of Merrick Garland, The Last Temptation of Merrick Garland;

This week, Attorney General Merrick Garland took to the pages of the Washington Post to lash out at critics who are spreading what he considers "conspiracy theories crafted and spread for the purpose of undermining public trust in the judicial process itself." His column, Unfounded Attacks on the Justice Department Must End, misses the point.It is Garland himself that has become the problem. The solution can be found in Wilmington, Delaware with twelve average citizens who showed a commitment to the rule of law that seems to be harder and harder for the Attorney General to embrace.Since his appointment Garland has repeated a mantra that he is apolitical and would never yield to the pressures of politics or the White House. When he was nominated, I believed that claim and enthusiastically supported Garland's confirmation. He was, I thought, the perfect man for the job after his distinguished judicial service as a moderate judge.I was wrong.Garland's tenure as attorney general has shown a pronounced reluctance to take steps that would threaten the President. He slow walked any appointment of a Special Counsel investigating the Bidens and then excluded the investigation of the massive influence peddling operation by Hunter Biden, his uncle, and others.However, what has occurred in the last six months has left some of us shaken given our early faith in Garland.The Special CounselsI have long been a critic of the failure of Merrick Garland to order a special counsel to look into the extensive corruption scandal swirling around the Bidens. As I stated in my testimony in the Biden impeachment hearing, there is ample evidence showing that President Biden lied repeatedly about his knowledge of this corruption and his interaction with these foreign clients.However, a more worrisome concern is the lack of consistency in these investigations. First, Special Counsel Robert Hur found that Biden knowingly retained and mishandled classified material. However, he concluded that Biden's age and diminished faculties would make him too sympathetic to a jury. It was less sympathetic than pathetic for many given that this is the same man who is running for reelection to lead the most powerful nation on Earth. More importantly, Garland has not made obvious efforts to reach a consistent approach in the two cases by dropping charges based on the same crimes by Trump in Florida.Second, Garland has allowed Special Counsel Jack Smith to maintain positions that seem diametrically at odds with past Justice Department policies. This includes Smith's statement that he will try Trump up to (and even through) the next election. It also includes a sweeping gag order that in the view of some of us would have eviscerated free speech protections in gagging Trump from criticizing the Justice Department. While Garland has said that he wants to give the special counsels their independence, it falls to him to protect the consistency and values of his department.The AudiotapeThe most patently political act of Garland has been the assertion of a laughable privilege claim to withhold the audiotape of the Hur-Biden interviews. While the Justice Department has not claimed that the transcript itself is privileged, it is asserting that the audiotape of the President's comments is privileged. It is so logically disconnected that even CNN hosts have mocked it.The Justice Department went further in court by adding conspiracy to absurdity in its unhinged theory. It asserted a type of "deepflake privilege" on the basis that the release of the audiotape could allow AI systems to create fake versions of the President's words. It ignores that there are ample sources now to create such fake tapes and that, by withholding the real audiotape, the Justice Department only makes such fake copies more likely to ensnare the unwary.Most importantly, the arguments of a "he-who-must-not-be-heard" privilege or a deepflake privilege are ridiculous. Garland knows that, as would any first-year law student. Yet, he is going along with a claim that is clearly designed to protect the President from embarrassment before the next election. It is entirely political and absolutely absurd.The ReferralsAfter stumbling through a half-hearted defense of the audiotape decision before he was held in contempt of Congress, Garland was faced with another clear and unavoidable test of principle. Three House committees (Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means) this month referred cases of perjury against  Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden. Despite what appears open-and-shut allegations of perjury before Congress, most everyone in Washington believes that Garland and the Justice Department will slow walk and then scuttle the referral to protect the Bidens.This is the same Justice Department that seemed on a hair-trigger to prosecute Trump officials for perjury and contempt after referrals from Democratically controlled committees.The questions at issue were not gotcha traps like showing up at Michael Flynn's office to nail him on his description of a meeting with Russian diplomats. These were some of the most discussed questions heading into Hunter Biden's long-delayed appearance before the committees.Hunter is accused of lying about his position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai (RSB), a corporate entity that moved millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities to Hunter Biden. He also lied about the identity of the recipient of his controversial message to a Chinese businessman in which he threatened that his father was sitting "right next to me" and would join him in retaliating against the Chinese if they did not send millions. They promptly wired the money as demanded.These answers appear demonstrably untrue. Yet, there is little faith that the Justice Department will allow the matter to be presented to a grand jury. If Garland's apolitical pledge were widely accepted, there would be little question about the prosecution of such compelling claims.Garland now appears entirely adrift in his own department. While mouthing platitudes of being beyond politics, he continues to run interference for the White House. He appears to be looking to close aides for such direction.He should instead look to twelve people in Wilmington, Delaware. Despite a case with overwhelming evidence of guilt against Hunter Biden on gun charges, the Biden team decided to pursue a jury nullification strategy. Wilmington is Bidentown, the home town for the President and his family. An array of Bidens, including the First Lady, lined up behind Hunter during the trial in case anyone forgot that fact.Yet, the jury quickly convicted Hunter on all counts. Despite sympathy for a recovering drug addict in a town that has overwhelmingly supported the Bidens for decades, these twelve jurors decided, as two jurors later explained,  that "no one is above the law."Garland needs to show a modicum of that courage and principle as attorney general. He can start by dropping the farcical privilege claims over the audiotape and sending the referrals to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the same priority treatment afforded to Trump officials like Flynn.As it stands, few believe that will happen despite Garland's repeated line on transcending politics. It is not the mantra, but the man, that is in doubt.

jonathan turley, June 14