How Merrick Garland's Caution Protected Trump - Carol Leonnig - America at a Crossroads

[Rhiannon12866]

Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter Carol Leonnig explains why the Justice Department under Merrick Garland delayed investigating Donald Trump after the 2020 election.

According to Leonnig’s reporting, FBI agents pressed repeatedly from late 2020 through early 2022 to examine what appeared to be efforts to interfere with a free and fair election. But the Department of Justice held back.

Why?

Garland, a former appellate judge nominated to the Supreme Court by Barack Obama, was determined not only to be apolitical — but to appear apolitical. That caution, Leonnig argues, may have slowed the department’s response at a critical moment.

The investigation only accelerated after revelations from the United States House Select Committee on the January 6th Attack began surfacing publicly, creating pressure on the DOJ.

Leonnig also reveals how Donald Trump’s first presidency left “scar tissue” inside the FBI and Justice Department — with career officials wary of becoming public targets again.

Was caution a virtue — or a mistake?

This is a serious conversation about institutional norms, accountability, and the long-term consequences of hesitation.

📘 Guest: Carol Leonnig, Author, Pulitzer Prize–winning Investigative Reporter
🎙️ Host: Warren Olney, Radio Broadcaster, host of "To the Point" on KCRW
📅 Recorded Feb 2026

[iemanja]

1. It was malfeasance.

[BGRD]

2. Being Cautious or more than cautious

One explanation for Garlands inertia is that Garland seemed to be paralyzed by the need to protect his pure and oh so precious reputation and legacy. As such he would have been a useless choice for a position like AG.
Another explanation could be that he answered to someone other than Biden and that he protected Trump by pouring sand into the gears of Justice.
There seems to be no logical explanation for his actions or more correctly inaction on the prosecution of Trump for sedition and possibly treason and espionage.
Why didn't he release the Epstein files?
Why didn't he release the complete Mueller report?
Why did he wait until the end of 2022 to appoint a special counsel to investigate Trump. And them he appointed a person who he knew could not take up the job for 3 months.
Why did he run the document theft prosecution in South Florida instead of following the usual procedure of running the prosecution in Washington DC. As a result out of the three Judges available it miraculously kept being placed before Donald Trumps favorite Judge Aileen Cannon.
So at the end of the day he helped put Trump in the White House.Now there are two dead citizens in Minneapolis who would be alive in Garland had done his job more energetically.
So many inexplicable mysteries. We will have to wait for Garland's memoirs.

[GreenWave]

3. He was prodded into taking on the little squirts. not the Orange Menace.