Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the Jan. 6 Select Committee, on Sunday criticized the Justice Department’s decision to decline contempt of Congress charges against former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.
“Meadows had a brief stint of cooperation with the panel, however, in which he handed over thousands of texts and emails related to Jan. 6. Meadows ultimately reversed course and refused to cooperate.”
This sounds a lot like an “I obeyed the law in the past so that makes up for and erases this infraction” defense.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say it’s because they are slated to face worse charges.
I also can’t shake the lingering idea that there’s some times when you want the fuckers running around doing their thing in hopes that they lead you places and make further mistakes.
We shall see…
Or maybe just that it could make it harder to get a jury to go with conviction.
I think those of us who want to see the likes of tRump and his minions indicted and sent to prison are going to have to be satisfied with the little crumbs we’re being tossed (Navarro). I hope I’m wrong but I just don’t see Garland as having the intestinal fortitude to go there. He is so bent on appearing non-political that he appears to be a GQP plant. Or it could be the reason he won’t go there is that horse head he woke up next to.
So, is the J6C response to the DOJ decision coordinated with DOJ as part of a strategy, or is there really a rift between the two?
I would normally be upset if Schiff is upset.
But if this doesn’t help the J6 Committee investigation, perhaps it means there’s a more vigorous DOJ investigation than we know about.
As @sniffit says, We shall see …
I sure hope you’re right; if you’re not, and Garland HASN’T been playing three-dimensional chess, people will be beyond disgusted this November.
I just hope Garland is moving pieces on the chessboard.
I get the sense he is.
It’s good that Schiff doesn’t know what the DOJ is doing.
We don’t want any hint of collusion, because the swamp people would rear their ugly heads and scream foul.
Let’s all be, hopefully, surprised together. It certainly has been a leakproof operation. Fairly unprecedented, I’d say.
I momentarily wondered if Schiff isn’t using the situation to make some of these reprobates think others are getting preferential treatment, encouraging the rats to start biting each other. Of course maybe he’s genuinely expressing what he actually thinks. Anything’s possible.
This could be theater or this could be bare buckled strategy. The J6 committee is looking for answers, the DOJ is not going to ask any questions that they don’t already know the answer to.
For that they need answers, some of which they get free from the J6 committee or they will get free. Others they get from the vast powers they have at their disposal. They have their own agenda, and the J6 committee is not at the top of the list.
Schiff is doing a valuable but thankless job, he’s keeping the fire burning but looking rather ineffectual at the same time. How many Grand Juries has he empaneled recently?
If the USDA DC did present to a grand jury and gain indictments, took it to trial, won convictions, they would no doubt appeal on some executive privilege claim. The 10th Circuit Court would deny the appeal quickly, or quickly plus three weeks if Neomi Rao by not so rare happenstance ends up on the initial 3 judge panel with another republican (again). But then it would be appealed to the Supreme Court, who would move with great alacrity, and remand it to lower court on a technicality, in June 2023, six months after the subpoenae have expired.
So, aside from exercizing some punishment (someday, assuming the SC doesn’t just kill it dead), the contempt prosecution is irrelevant as far as getting them to testify.
I sure hope so, but wouldn’t the DOJ advise Schiff and others that this was in the works? Same thing if it was dropped because they’re cooperating.
Maybe it’s just an extremely tight-lipped investigation and even the 1/6 committee is being kept out of the loop, but this sounds to me like Schiff knows why the DOJ dropped it, and it’s not because there’s more serious charges coming.
If Barr had made the exact same decision, I would most certainly have advocated for his impeachment. If that decision is not OK for Barr to make, then it is not acceptable for Garland, either.
“Dangerous Precedent”
No kidding.
So, if we assume the DoJ is playing 11-dimensional chess and they don’t want to go ahead with this right now to avoid tipping their hand on other things, ok. But they could release a statement that says, “We’re still considering this,” and then drop the indictment on Jan. 2, 2023.
But saying “Nope, not gonna do it” just says that Congress has no right to subpoena anyone ever. Why will anyone at all ever submit to a Congressional subpoena?
These cases seem to me to be slam dunks. It seems to me there should be only two conditions that get you out of a Congressional subpoena:
Otherwise, you testify or take the 5th Amendment, but either way, you do it in front of Congress.
#1 doesn’t apply in these two jamokes’ case. #2 shouldn’t either.
What the hell is the Justice department doing broadcasting their decisions not to charge people? Isn’t that the same shit they caught fire for when Comey blew up Hillary’s campaign? I thought they were just supposed to, you know, not charge them - not announce it like they are somehow absolving these people.
Not only does it not get executive privilege, but the current executive explicitly said he is waiving any privilege that might have applied.
Absolutely not. What congress doesn’t know doesn’t leak.
Same thing if it was dropped because they’re cooperating.
See above. Congress would learn of a plea deal the same time and way we would, via public filing in court. But these guys haven’t even been indicted (that we know of).
“It is very puzzling why these two witnesses would be treated differently than the two that the Justice Department is prosecuting,” Schiff said, referring to Navarro and former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was also charged by the DOJ with contempt last year. “There is no absolute immunity.”
… … … … …
Mr Schiff… Adam… of course there is immunity here. But it’s immunity from reality. The Minions around trump and trump himself think they did no wrong at all and so they can blithely ignore subpoenas and indictments from whatever source because they really think laws do not apply to anyone around trump or especially trump himself. They are all beyond any law…they think. And that is exactly why I would approve (in theory at least) of a proverbial legal “ton 'o bricks” landing in their laps. I know it doesn’t work this way in reality. That it takes years to sort out even misdemeanors in that crowd. I wish I had 2 or 3 more decades to watch this play out but at my age I don’t have the luxury of time.