David Jay Morris for BuzzFlash: Merrick Garland - Mueller 2.0 or Eliot Ness?

Grave of Eliot Ness (Erik Drost)

November 9, 2021

By David Jay Morris

Remember much about the Mueller Report…the product of an elite multi-year investigation we all thought would hold Donald Trump accountable for his misdeeds?

Neither do I.

Because it didn’t.

The really big takeaways were how easily team Trump was able to neuter and defang the whole thing - and how shockingly timid it turned out to have been.

Ever since Watergate, what has been the first axiom of corruption investigations 101?

“Follow the money!”

They didn’t.

Did the Mueller team – or anyone else – ever finish an intelligence investigation?  Your guess is as good as mine.

While Trump was loudly blowing his foghorn of disinformation and lies on a daily basis, Mueller was quietly and politely carrying on his investigation oh-so-carefully by the book.

If there was ever a case of bringing a bean bag to a knife fight, this was it.

While Mueller was silently, carefully doing his work with nary a leak, Trump and his cronies were shaping a narrative more to their liking.

And – aided by the right-wing propaganda machine - getting a terrifyingly large number of Americans to buy into the BS and in the process, setting the stage for all the “Stop the steal” nonsense to come.

Sure enough, when Attorney General Barr shoved his well-prepared shiv into the back of his long-time friend, Mueller, the whole thing came to naught.

And now…

Trump and his buddies are up again to their old tricks.

Delay and dissemble.

Claim an all-mighty executive privilege that doesn’t exist, even for people it would never cover.

Use this as a pretext to tie things up in court long enough for control of the House to be flipped and the investigation to be squashed by Trump’s flunkies in Congress. 

It could be said that the House Select Committee was too slow getting out of the gate, but now they’re up to speed.

Committee members from both parties seem to recognize that what Trump and his acolytes have been up to since Biden was declared winner of the election last November is nothing less than an attempted coup d’état.

An ongoing attempt.

The members know that the future of democracy is on the line and subpoenas are going out.

To no one’s surprise, Steve Bannon ignored his and on October 21st, the Select Committee referred him to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution on a charge of contempt of Congress.

Since then, a flurry of subpoenas for the most important players in insurrection have gone out and lots more intransigency and resistance are expected.

But what do we hear from the Justice Department about Bannon’s prosecution, let alone its overall policy for dealing with all the similar cases that are sure to come soon?

Crickets.

If, when and in what way Bannon is actually going to be charged is anybody’s guess.

For his part, AG Garland declined to comment, saying only that, “This is a criminal matter.” 

Mueller 2.0?

Reports suggest that the Justice Department is oh-so-carefully reviewing the case and working out its response.

Say what?

From the day the Select Committee was established, it was…or should have been…entirely predictable that exactly this situation would arise. 

Did Mr. Garland not think it wise to assign at least someone to look into the matter then, so that we could have a policy ready to go now?

At this crisis point in our democracy, is Garland’s excruciating caution really in the best interest of the country?

Or do we need a modern-day Eliot Ness, the crusading crime-fighter from prohibition days who helped bring Al Capone to justice?

True, popular conceptions to the contrary, he wasn’t the one who worked on the tax charges that ultimately landed Big Al in the slammer, but Ness’ aggressive, creative and incorruptible campaign went a long way towards crippling organized crime in Chicago and elsewhere.

Thanks to his incorruptible character and many accomplishments (with, perhaps, a little help from Hollywood), for many people he has become a symbol for a courageous, creative and indefatigable crusader against crime.

Might this not be a better model for Mr. Garland’s stint as Attorney General than Robert Mueller’s term leading the Trump probe?

Ironically, if Garland wants to rise to the occasion and give the country a much-needed Eliot Ness moment, Mueller did leave the AG one powerful weapon in his final report.

Disappointing as the document was at the time, it did contain everything a good prosecutor would need to bring criminal charges of obstruction of justice against Trump.

The only reason this wasn’t considered while Donald was still in office was the Justice Department’s policy of not bringing any charges against a sitting president.

News flash…Trump isn’t one any longer.

And he’s at it again.