We now learn that Attorney General Merrick Garland took weeks to decide whether to issue a search warrant and unleash 30 FBI agents to search Mar-a-Lago for national security and classified documents that allegedly were not turned over last spring, casting doubt on both the urgency of the search and the excuse for not using less drastic means to get the documents.
If “equal justice under law” is the principle, (putting aside Hillary Clinton getting a pass on her blatant misuse of classified documents), Garland has yet to explain why, as Chief Judge of the D.C. Circuit, he rubber-stamped the dismissal of an indictment requested by Eric Holder’s DOJ prosecutors in 2009 against Elizabeth Duke, a member of the radical May 19th communist terror group that bombed the U.S. Senate Chambers in 1983.
Duke became a fugitive after being released on bail -- no pretrial detention for her as what was imposed on many non-violent January 6 defendants locked up for over a year in solitary confinement. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for her capture. How many FBI agents has Garland dispatched to capture this violent terrorist and bring her to justice?
The alarming motion to dismiss the indictment was summarily granted by Obama-appointed Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson who falsely signed the dismissal order as an Article III U.S. District Court Judge and falsely stated it was based on reasons given by the prosecutor when in fact, no reasons were offered in court.
On January 15, 2014, then-Chief Judge Garland summarily dismissed a judicial misconduct complaint against Magistrate Robinson for her unlawful action, stating it “lacked sufficient evidence to raise an inference that misconduct has occurred,” when in fact the misconduct was abundantly clear on its face.
What’s more disturbing is that Garland failed to provide the Senate Judiciary Committee during his confirmation hearing for Attorney General with a copy of his Duke ruling and several other judicial misconduct appeals he dismissed, along with all his other opinions, speeches, and writings, which even included a theater review he wrote in 1972 at Harvard of Harold Pinter’s play, “The Homecoming: Whores Pimps and Kindly Old Men.” Surely, Members of the Judiciary Committee would have been more interested in questioning him about his Duke ruling than how many thumbs up he gave the play.
By the way, Duke’s co-conspirator Susan Rosenberg was convicted and imprisoned for the bombing, only to have her sentence commuted by Bill Clinton on his last day in office. Rosenberg has since taken her “social justice” skills to supporting Black Lives Matter.
Merrick Garland has some explaining to do for his (mis)handling of the Duke case, lest President Biden, on his last day in office, follows Clinton’s footsteps and pardons Duke for bombing the U.S. Capitol, or Jimmy Carter, who pardoned Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire on the House floor from the visitor’s gallery above, wounding five members of Congress. Yet the Democrats are alarmed that some were unsuccessful in asking for pardons from President Trump for their non-violent conduct regarding January 6th.
Equal justice under law?