In the backdrop of Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Joe Biden’s mishandling of classified information, there was another tidbit that Axios touched upon when we were hours away from learning that the president’s memory has degraded to the point where he doesn’t remember the timing of his son’s death. The Biden White House is in a de facto state of war with the Justice Department. The president’s aides were worried about the Hur report inflicting damage on the White House. It’s done that and then some—Biden also cannot recollect his vice presidency. The rage turns to the man who signed off on Hur’s appointment, providing another chapter in the annals of Joe Biden's hypocrisy.
Politico wrote at length about Biden’s growing anger at Attorney General Merrick Garland for being an impartial actor and appointing special counsels to investigate him and his family’s activities. On Garland’s part, he noted the appointments were required since the president left sensitive materials in multiple unsecured locations. Garland isn’t expected to run the DOJ if Biden wins a second term. Also, while they don’t say it explicitly, Biden’s main gripe is that the DOJ didn’t move fast enough on the investigations into Donald Trump, preventing the president from weaponizing its findings first. Our own John Hasson and Huy Benson also commented on this White House leak on Twitter. It's a scandal (via Politico):
Basically admitting that Biden planned on using/abusing Trump’s prosecutions to win the presidency
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) February 10, 2024
Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.
Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking, telling aides and outside allies that he believed the stress could send Hunter Biden spiraling back into addiction, according to the same two people. And the elder Biden, the people said, told those confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure.
In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters. That trial still could take place before the election and much of the delay is owed not to Garland but to deliberate resistance put up by the former president and his team.
A spokesperson for the Department of Justice declined to comment. But one former senior Justice Department official noted that some of the frustrations being directed at Garland are better directed toward the White House. The president’s team had the option to exert executive privilege over elements of Hur’s report but declined to do so. And had Garland made edits to the report, he would have had to explain those redactions to Congress.
Beyond that, Garland felt the need to appoint a special counsel in the classified documents case in part because the president’s team bungled when the first documents were discovered.
[…]
Biden picked Garland as his attorney general with the stated desire to restore a semblance of independence at the Department of Justice that he and others believed was lost under Donald Trump. He announced the nomination the day after the Jan. 6 attacks at the Capital — a backdrop that Biden offered up as proof that someone of Garland’s stature and temperament was needed in the post.
“Your loyalty is not to me,” Biden said. “You won’t work for me. You are not the president or the vice president’s lawyer.”
Democrats close to Biden fear Garland has become too consumed by that instruction to appear impartial.
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This story is a scandal. Biden is fuming that his hand-picked AG didn't meddle in a special counsel probe in order to protect him politically, and is mad his top electoral opponent hasn't been prosecuted more briskly. WH insiders are telegraphing retaliation against the AG: https://t.co/1YDDEWchgQ
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 12, 2024
I’m sorry, the Biden White House is mad that Garland took the impartiality directive literally. Also, he’s not doing that: Garland allegedly interfered in the IRS probe into Hunter Biden’s tax issues. At the very least, he lied before Congress regarding the independence of these investigations.
The larger part of this is that Democrats are mad that the Department of Justice isn’t politicized enough, it would seem. That should freak out anyone. Biden can’t use the January 6 committee because no one cares about that, the economy is in shambles, and the old Obama coalition hates his guts. No wonder why he felt this was all he had to use against Trump, but now the grenade went off inside his ship, and he must work to keep it balanced. There’s one issue: Biden doesn’t have the skills to do that.
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