Many Democrats aren’t pleased with the man whom President Joe Biden appointed as attorney general.
Recent weeks have brought torrents of Democratic-led criticism of Attorney General Merrick Garland over what Democrats call a timid approach to prosecutions around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, in which rioters attempted to disrupt the normally ceremonial Electoral College count in an effort to keep defeated President Donald Trump in office. While the day’s events have brought about hundreds of prosecutions of rioters, Garland critics want the Justice Department to go after the Trump administration officials and outside advisers they contend were the brains of the operation.
Rep. Ruben Gallego on Tuesday said the attorney general is being “extremely weak” in holding people accountable for the riot. The Arizona Democrat’s remarks preceded a planned speech by Garland on Thursday, which is said to outline the DOJ’s “efforts to hold accountable those responsible” for the people who stormed the Capitol last year.
“I think Merrick Garland has been extremely weak, and I think there should be a lot more of the organizers of Jan. 6 that should be arrested by now,” Gallego said on Tuesday.
MERRICK GARLAND TO DELIVER JUSTICE DEPARTMENT UPDATE ON CAPITOL RIOT INVESTIGATION
.@RepRubenGallego on CNN: “I think Merrick Garland has been extremely weak, and I think a lot more of the organizers of January 6 should be arrested by now.” pic.twitter.com/7UDcCM5y4l
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 5, 2022
With more than 700 people across numerous states charged in connection to the riot, and nearly 70 people sentenced, Gallego aimed his frustrations that a majority of charges were centered on people who entered the Capitol. Gallego noted a lack of charges placed on organizers and allies of Trump, who invited rally attendees to a public speech just before Congress was slated to certify the election for Biden.
“I think some of them are doing criminal acts, especially interference of Congress in terms of their duties,” Gallego said. “I think we have to certainly look at them. This is why we need to have an active attorney general that can separate those that were doing political work from actual work helping the insurrection and/or the coup plotters.”
Jennifer Rubin, an opinion writer for the Washington Post, on Tuesday tweeted that the attorney general “certainly knows the issue is not merely the violence that occurred on Jan. 6. The perception of the insurrection as a single, violent day grossly limits the scope of the crime and the appropriate prosecution.”
Other Democrats have echoed Gallego’s calls for stricter accountability toward Trump’s allies, including sports journalist Keith Olbermann.
“Indictments or it doesn’t mean s***, Merrick Garland, you gutless business-as-usual bureaucrat,” Olbermann, a former MSNBC host, tweeted on Jan. 3.
Justice Department data show more than 270 people charged in connection to the Capitol riot face counts related to conspiracy or obstruction that amount to a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
House investigators tasked with looking into the riot have faced criticism from Republican allies of Trump and the former president himself, as Trump released a statement Tuesday announcing his cancellation of a planned news conference at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, on the anniversary of the Capitol attack.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“In light of the total bias and dishonesty of the January 6th Unselect Committee of Democrats, two failed Republicans, and the Fake News Media, I am canceling the January 6th Press Conference,” Trump wrote, noting that he would address the incident of the riot last year at a Jan. 15 rally in Arizona.
