General Discussion

For a year I've told DU detractors this, and I'll say it here again: AG Merrick Garland wasn't waiting.

Before ANY DOJ indictments can be made, a thorough investigation and collection of evidence must take place -- none of which DU'ers saw while it was happening.

Because the FBI is DOJ, Garland's FBI began arrests ON Jan 6 2021 -- two months before his confirmation -- and Garland DOJ convictions continued until the week after the 2024 election.

During the months of FBI arrest actions, Garland was prosecuting new AND outstanding cases,
all while trying to rebuild the Barr DOJ personnel, trying to place Senate confirmed assistant AG’s, deputies, and 8 Division heads. ANY delays in Senate confirmations in Garland’s first year were caused by Republicans, not Garland.

1. Again. Before Garland’s investigation and prosecutions work could begin...

Garland himself wasn't confirmed with Republican votes until TWO months after Biden's 2021 inauguration;
Republicans STILL made Garland wait months for his division heads' confirmations;
Republicans did not confirm Kenneth Polite to head the DOJ's Criminal Division until July 2021 -- SIX MONTHS after Biden's inauguration;
Because they knew the Criminal Division would handle both federal cases under Garland.

2. Here's the Garland DOJ evidence gathering timeline -- BEFORE Jack Smith made any indictments.

By January 6 2022 (10 months after his confirmation): Garland states:
“So far, we have
-- issued over 5,000 subpoenas and search warrants,
-- seized approximately 2,000 devices,
-- pored through over 20,000 hours of video footage, and
-- searched through an estimated 15 terabytes of data...
-- received over 300,000 tips from ordinary citizens, who have been our indispensable partners in this effort.”

Garland actions above contributed to Special Counsel investigations.
In other words, Garland handed off all the documents case evidence to Jack Smith.

Jan 2022
— 15 boxes found in the storage area
— the FBI found more than 11,000 government records at Maralago — of those
— 184 unique documents bearing classification markings, of those:
— 67 docs marked Confidential
— 92 docs marked Secret
— 25 docs marked Top Secret
markings reflected that docs were subject to sensitive compartments and dissemination controls
used to restrict access to material in the interest of national security, including
HCS(Humint Control system),
FISA(Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act),
ORCON (originator controlled),
NORORN (could be NOFORN, no foreign national), AND
SI(Special Intelligence)

May 2022
— The first 100 documents marked as classified totaled over 700 pages [National Archives letter to Trump attorney, May 10, 2022]
May 11 2022: Garland convenes four DOJ Grand juries, one for Jan 6 convened until March 2024 -- 6 months before Jack Smith walked in the door
— Grand Jury subpoenas Trump for documents

June 3 2022
— Trump lawyer hands over 40 boxes from Maralago storage room
— 38 docs marked Classified


June 3 2022:
Garland's DOJ Grand jury subpoenas Trump for remaining docs in Maralago;
lawyers for Trump "certify" that there were no more;
Trump stole 11,000 government docs, 300 classified docs — the Garland DOJ's FBI found more than Trump's lawyers certified as recovered.

July 22 2022: G
arland's Grand jury testimony by Marc Short, Mike Pence’s Chief of Staff, & Short's counsel Greg Jacob

August 8 2022
— FBI warrant search of Maralago
— 103 marked Classified
— 18 marked Top Secret

The law violated: —- 18 U.S.C. 793— Gathering, transmitting or losing defense information.
Penalty: Fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
More on the indictability of these stolen defense-classified documents:
https://www.justsecurity.org/83034/tracker-evidence-of-trumps-knowledge-and-involvement-in-retaining-mar-a-lago-documents/

Sept 2 2022:
Garland's Grand jury subpoenaed testimony by Pat Cipollone,
a) one of the participants in WH meeting Dec 18 2020, that included Giuliani, Powell, Flynn, Patrick Byrne of Overstock,
b) Cipollone sat in on Jan 3 2021 DOJ official meeting with Trump, and
c) Cipollone was in direct contact with trump on Jan 6 during capitol insurrection, and did nothing when Meadows told him Trump didn’t want to interfere with rioters calling for hanging Mike Pence)
AND with Patrick Philbin

Sept 15 2022:
Garland's Grand Jury subpoenas Mark Meadows for testimony and documents
the month of Sept 2022: Garland's DOJ issued over 40 subpoenas to people close to Trump, some of whom are
— Bill Stepien, DT’s campaign mgr; part of team to prevent certification
— Sean Dollman, DT’s campaign CFO
— Ben Williamson, Deputy of Mark Meadows,
— Boris Epshteyn, Trump's lawyer -- phone demanded; part of team to prevent certification
— Mike Lindell -- phone seized
— William Russell, WH special asst to Trump, THEN special aide to Trump in Mar-a-lago

Oct 6 2022: Garland's Grand jury calls back Greg Jacob
Oct 13 2022: Garland's Grand Jury calls back Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff

Nov 4 2022:
classified docs found in Biden’s
-- Wilmington home (garage, library), (no docs in Rehoboth beach home) and
-- Penn Biden Center in DC (Richard Sauber is spec counsel to Pres Biden)
Nov 14 2022: Garland asks John Lausch (Trump appointed US Atty, Chicago) to review found Biden documents

3. Nov 18 2022 Garland appoints Jack Smith (3 days after Trump announces his candidacy for 2024), who inherits the records of the Garland DOJ's work. Jack Smith took charge of over 20 Garland prosecutors and integrated his work into what was described as a 'fast moving investigation' which had already gathered more evidence than Mueller had.

By that very day, Nov 18 2022, Garland's DOJ had convicted more than 323 Jan 6 insurrectionists.

All of the above documents case evidence AND DC grand jury evidence gathered is what AG Merrick Garland and his DOJ did before Jack Smith.

Garland himself could not possibly know how long it would take SC Jack Smith's team to file indictments.

But the first documents case indictment was filed June 8 2023, based mostly on work previously done by Garland's Criminal Division/FBI investigators and grand juries.

For DU'ers triggered by the mention of Garland, this timeline of his work will forever remain the facts of Garland's Jan 6 investigations and evidence collections during his first 20 months in office... along with those DU’ers' willful ignorance of the fact of Garland's wisdom in choosing Jack Smith from the Hague as Special Counsel.