Harris likely seeking an AG with a 'sustained focus' on 'prosecution of Trump': analysis

28 August 2024

If she wins the November election, Vice President Kamala Harris will likely replace Attorney General Merrick Garland with her own pick to lead the Department of Justice. Now, a former federal prosecutor is shedding light on who he thinks she might pick, and what that pick would signify.

In a Wednesday article for Politico magazine, former white-collar DOJ prosecutor Ankush Khardori explained that Harris — who herself is a former state attorney general — has a unique understanding of what the job entails and will likely want someone with several key qualifications. Notably, Khardori opined that Harris' appointment to lead the DOJ will likely 'have a sustained focus on continuing the prosecution against [former President Donald] Trump."

"She should be looking for an attorney general who will aggressively — but within the law and the evidence — finish the uncompleted work of securing convictions against all those responsible for Jan. 6, including at the very top," an unnamed former Obama administration official told Politico.

Khardori noted that while a case could be made for continuing to keep Garland at the helm of the DOJ given his record on civil rights and immigration — along with his hundreds of successful prosecutions against those who participated in the January 6 insurrection — his handling of Trump himself will likely be what costs him his role should Harris prevail in November.

"The department could — and should — have investigated Trump quickly and aggressively after he left office, but that is not what happened," Khardori wrote. "The delay in getting the investigation of Trump’s conduct up and running in earnest, coupled with the subsequent and repeated trial delays following Trump’s indictment, have created a situation in which the country now finds itself facing the distinct possibility that Trump will return to power at least in part thanks to Garland’s failure to act quickly enough."

The former DOJ official isn't the only veteran federal prosecutor who thinks Garland dropped the ball on prosecuting Trump in a timely manner. In June, Shan Wu wrote in the Daily Beast that Garland's slow and cautious approach to charging the former president with crimes, as well as his decision to appoint Trump-appointed U.S. attorney Robert Hur as special counsel to handle the classified documents investigation into President Joe Biden were unsound in retrospect.

"[The delay and the Hur appointment] all may be well-intentioned efforts to appear that he is being non-partisan and independent of the White House," Wu wrote. "But all of those decisions have contributed to the robust comeback of former President Trump and his supporters."

While Harris hasn't yet given any indication to who, if any candidates for attorney general she's vetting, he mentioned North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper and Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey as potential options, as both of them are former state attorneys general. Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Alabama) and Obama-era U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Prett Bharara have also been floated as potential options, and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-California) told Politico that he viewed Vanita Gupta — who led the DOJ's civil rights division under Barack Obama — as a "phenomenal" choice.

If Trump wins the election, it's likely that he would instruct his appointed attorney general to dismiss the two federal cases against him. And in the unlikely scenario that Trump faces a criminal trial and is convicted before the election, he could theoretically pardon himself if he wins a second term.

Click here to read Khardori's article in full.

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