— —
I really don’t want to start another pie-fight about the DOJ’s commitment to bring the Trump team plotters to Justice. I think that the Department of Justice is diligently gathering the evidence for that goal, as we speak. Especially in light of recent events.
But when I read this next story, I thought it was newsworthy, considering the source. If nothing else it gives us some insight into the recent public friction on display, between the 1-6 Committee and the DOJ. So I share it, in this context — even the best of families have internal squabbles sometimes ...
Adam Schiff criticizes slow pace of Justice Department investigation into broader January 6 plot
by Annie Grayer, CNN — Sept 24, 2022
[...] [emphasis added]
The longtime lawmaker [Adam Schiff] reflected Saturday on how the process for sharing information between the January 6 committee and the DOJ developed, saying he found it "breathtaking" that the
initial ask from the DOJ was for
all of the committee's work product.
"It would be equally breathtaking if we were to say to the Justice Department, 'Turn over all of your files,'" he said. "My first reaction when we got the request -- 'Turn over all your files to us' -- was: 'Why don't you have your own damn files? Why haven't you been conducting your own investigation? Why do you need us to do it?'"
Despite his criticism, Schiff acknowledged that the DOJ's investigation was ramping up, telling the crowd, "It does appear now that they have interviewed many of the same significant witnesses that we have."
Schiff's comments come as CNN has learned that Trump's attorneys are
fighting a secret court battle to block a federal grand jury from gathering information from an expanding circle of close aides to the former President about his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
[...]
Despite his initial dismay at the DOJ ask (all your files), Adam Schiff does recognize the strides they have made.
When the DOJ asked for all the 1-6 Committee’s work a few months ago, my first thought was:
“Hell yeah, give it to them!”
(I never totally understood the internal friction between the branches of Government then, and chalked it up to “turf wars” and “not getting witness testimony cross-wired” etc. Many of these possible rationales were passionately discussed in the comment threads here, at the time. And now we have one of the parties giving us, his views on the actual situation at the time — thus today’s post.)
—
Nevertheless the two branches (Justice and House of Representatives) have seemed to come to some sort of working arrangement in the meantime, and the DOJ is throwing the full weight of the US Government into the matter of bringing the 1-6 Coup Plotters to Justice. This is very good news indeed. Too bad the wheels of Justice turn so damn slowly. And by design, often so opaquely.
[The CNN story concludes … ]
The DOJ is now conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the January 6 attack and attempts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors have issued grand jury subpoenas, executed search warrants and seized devices as part of the probe.
In that last paragraph CNN links to the DOJ efforts, to indeed go after the Trump inner circle. Ranging back to June of this year, with the Jeffrey Clark phone seizure. All the way up to the recent phone seizures in the last two weeks, from several more key Trump insiders.
As many here have repeatedly told me, “We don’t know what the DOJ has been doing behind scenes, so it is best not to criticize them, and just let them do their work.”
Good advice. Perhaps someone needs remind Adam Schiff of that, too.
— —
I covered that recent DOJ phone sweep round-up here [disturbing pillow-image warning]:
I also wrote about the earlier Jeffery Clark warrant and seizure here:
I have been trying to cheer the DOJ on —
I really have. And like Representative Schiff, I have been encouraged by the real signs of progress — as revealed in the
Trump v. the United States court filings, and
elsewhere.
I do sincerely think that we need to give the DOJ time to make their case against Trump — so that they can make that case stick.
I don’t envy those who have to make those monumental legal decisions. Almost as much as I don’t condone those plotters who have put the country in this historic unenviable position …
— —
Afterall some of us have been battling against these Trump scofflaws, for quite a while now, to little or no avail, on the karmic/juridical scales:
It is very good indeed, to
openly see the DOJ join this Constitutional fight — as if our democracy depends on it. Because it most surely
does.
— —