Why Did Trump’s January 6 Indictment Take So Long?

A reminder that Garland was endorsed by the Federalist Society, which is why Obama thought he would be a safe pick for SCOTUS.

Garland and people in the DOJ who were left over from Trump slow walked it.

Once the Senate finally confirmed the people Biden appointed, the process started to speed up.

Garland is to blame, but Semate Republicans feet dragging appointments is also to blame.

Because Merrick Garland is grossly incompetent.

He didn't appoint special counsel to look into this until last November. Worse even than that: Garland didn't even file obstruction of justice charges based on the Mueller report, which was basically a ready-to-file indictment as written.

Remember, this was the most egregious case of Obstruction in United States history. This was a president firing the FBI director BECAUSE the FBI director was trying to find out if the Russians who helped Trump influence the election were actively conspiring WITH the president!

This was outrageous obstruction to cover up crimes that might realistically include TREASON, to say nothing of conspiracy against the United States.

And Garland did NOTHING. And he let the statute of limitations toll, and now we can't even charge Trump for this.

Outrageous incompetence.

This bit of the article and the Washington Post report it links to really demonstrates our problem concisely

[Jack Smith] carried out his investigation and drafted Trump’s indictment at a remarkably swift pace—Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed him only last November—even as he was also overseeing the probe into Trump’s mishandling of sensitive federal documents at his Mar-a-Lago compound. So while it is indeed a relief to ponder the prospect that Trump may face actual consequences for his subversion of the Constitution and his governing oath, it’s also vital to ask ourselves just why and how a case this important for the rescue of whatever remains of our democracy, and founded on a great deal of already available public information, aroused such belated and half-hearted interest from the justice system.

...

Alas, the same basic profile of a sclerotic and unresponsive status quo holds for the federal enforcement of election law, as the institutional background behind Smith’s January 6 probe makes all too clear. From the outset of his tenure atop the Justice Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland evinced little interest in mounting any such investigation, fearing that the GOP’s permanently aggrieved MAGA base would view it as a weaponized, partisan effort to hound Trump into political irrelevance. As a blockbuster report by The Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Aaron C. Davis revealed this June, for a full year after the insurrection, Garland’s team looking into January 6 “consisted of just four prosecutors working with agents with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the National Archives and Records Administration.” Garland also shunned any wider probe into Trump’s coterie of political shills and hack-legal advisers building the case for him to gin up a bogus roster of alternate electors from swing states to throw Congress’s January 6 certification of results into chaos. Those sycophants and grifters are now unnamed co-conspirators in Smith’s indictment, and will be subject to future legal proceedings. In the end, Garland didn’t mount an investigation into the electors scheme until 15 months after the failed coup attempt.

I guess none of us should have been surprised that a "moderate" Federalist Society conservative would drag his feet for fear of retribution from his own party. The best thing Garland has done for this country is assign Jack Smith as a special prosecutor. The next best thing he can do is resign so that perhaps an AG with intestinal fortitude can replace him.