Critics 'stunned' watching Merrick Garland hand the keys over to Trump's team
New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush called Attorney General Merrick Garland's final acts in his office "mind-blowing."
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace spoke with Thrush, former top prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, and historian Ruth Ben-Ghait about why the Justice Department has been outplayed.
Special counsel Jack Smith flagged the final report for Donald Trump and others involved in the federal cases, allowing Trump the time to go to court to stop its release. While Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case, she inserted herself back into it to stop the report's publication. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals promptly overruled her.
ALSO READ: Powerful Oversight Dem urges Biden to wield immunity — and release Jack Smith report
Given the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity, legal experts and Democratic lawmakers have wondered why President Joe Biden has not released the report.
"I've lost the plot on all this. Why don't they go give it to the attorney general and the president and brief the country on what grand jurors made up of peers of Donald Trump found in these investigations that were only halted by his election?" Wallace asked.
Thrush said Garland promised to release all special counsel reports from the beginning of his term in office.
"I mean, they play by the book until the very end," Thrush said. However, no law or DOJ policy said that Smith must give the report to Trump before it is released. He also noted that few are even left in the building to contradict Cannon in court filings.
"It's just an absolutely stunning reversal," said Thrush. "All of the power has moved from the Garland Justice Department and Jack Smith to the Trump team. And, I mean, the most extraordinary part of this, or one of them, everything's extraordinary about it. But one of the really extraordinary parts about this is Todd Blanche, the man who's represented Trump in these cases, is about to take over as the number two in the Justice Department, arguably one of the most important positions in Washington. It's just mind-blowing how things have turned upside down."
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