How Garland’s 'truly historic legal missteps' let Trump dodge accountability

07 November 2024

Despite awaiting sentencing on 34 criminal counts and having faced four criminal indictments, President-elect Donald Trump enjoyed a decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris on Election Night 2024.

Now that Trump in on his way back to the White House, special counsel Jack Smith's two federal cases against him are almost certain to disappear altogether. And it remains to be seen what type of sentence Justice Juan Merchan will impose in Manhattan District Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case.

Legal journalist Ankush Khardori, in a biting article published by Politico on November 7, argues that Trump will dodge accountability because of the "truly historic legal missteps by the Biden Administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland" as well as a "series of decisions by Republicans throughout the political and legal systems in recent years that effectively bailed Trump out when the risks for him were greatest."

"The two federal criminal cases against him are now dead as a practical matter," Khardori laments. "Already there is reporting suggesting that special counsel Jack Smith will leave his post and dismiss the pending cases, which is not that surprising considering that Trump pledged to fire him once back in office anyway. The Georgia case, an overhyped and misguided vehicle for post-2020 legal accountability, is going to remain on ice and perhaps get thrown out entirely in the coming years…. In Manhattan, where Trump was supposed to be sentenced in a matter of weeks after his conviction in the Stormy Daniels hush money case earlier this year, Trump is likely to ask the court to cancel the sentencing date."

Khardori adds, "Regardless of the mechanics, there is no reasonable scenario in which Trump serves some period of incarceration while also serving in the White House."

The legal journalist argues that if Trump had "actually faced accountability," he never would have been the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee.

"It is now clearer than ever that Garland was a highly questionable choice to serve as attorney general from the start," Khardori writes. "From the outset of the Biden presidency, it was readily apparent that Garland had little desire to investigate and potentially prosecute Trump."

Garland, according to Khardori, moved way too slowly in appointing Smith as special counsel.

"Garland is a serious, well-intentioned and complex figure," Khardori explains. "But given all this, he may go down as one of the worst and most broadly unpopular attorney generals in American history — hated by the anti-Trump part of the country for failing to bring Trump to justice, and hated by the pro-Trump part of the country for pursuing Trump at all. I sincerely hope he provides a first-hand accounting of what happened after he too leaves office next year."

Ankush Khardori's full Politico analysis is available at this link.

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