The absurdity of Merrick Garland's special counsel

Not that long ago, when the FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago was fresh in our minds, Jonathan Turley, who isn't a Trump fan, appeared on Fox & Friends to talk about the raid. The heart of that interview was when Prof. Turley said "This is an act that is not heavily enforced, certainly not historically been criminally enforced. Some of the most egregious cases were handled rather lightly. Sandy Berger being an example. He actually stuffed documents in his socks and snuck them out of a secure location leaving them at a spot to be retrieved later. He received no jail time and just pled guilty to a misdemeanor. He wasn’t even forced to lose his security clearance permanently. It was just a three-year suspension. So this is an act that is not known for robust criminal enforcement. That does raise questions as to the all-hands-on-deck raid that occurred."

This is consistent with Prof. Turley's op-ed for The Hill. In that op-ed, Prof. Turley wrote "Records violations involving both presidential and non-presidential material are common, however. Those laws were raised with regard to former FBI Director James Comey removing FBI material and then leaking information to the press, yet he was not prosecuted."

Turley continued:

In the case of President Clinton’s former national security adviser, Sandy Berger, the violations involved stuffing classified material into his pants and socks to remove them from the Archives and to retrieve them later. Berger was allowed to plead to a misdemeanor, given two years’ probation and a three-year suspension, not a permanent revocation, of his security clearance.

Former CIA director and retired four-star Army general David Petraeus was accused of giving access to classified information to his alleged lover. Although prosecutors reportedly wanted to file serious felony charges, Petraeus also was given a generous plea deal without jail time.

AG Garland's appointing of a special counsel is a travesty. Far greater violations were committed than a records dispute between a president and the National Archives and Records Administration. These violations got slaps on the wrists. In Trump's case, it was a dispute as to who owned the records. In Sandy Burger's case, he stole documents already stored in the archives. To compare the 2 things is beyond absurdity.

The other thing that the Garland special counsel is assigned to investigate is the J6 'insurrection.' That's a fishing expedition, not an investigation. Most of the testimony during the J6 show trial (faux trial?) was hearsay testimony, which isn't admitted into evidence in a trial. If a grand jury was impaneled, they'd start from scratch because the authorities (the FBI, Capitol Hill Police, etc.) don't have proof that an insurrection happened. Of the people arrested and waiting adjudication, none are charged with gun crimes. How do you commit an insurrection without guns? When AG Garland explains that to my satisfaction, I'll stop criticizing the politicization of the DOJ and FBI. Until then, I'll keep criticizing those institutions.

Finally, it's worthwhile watching this Turley interview:

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