Attorney General Merrick Garland must resign for failing to take action against disgraced former President Donald Trump and his co-conspirators for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and other federal crimes, according to progressive Democrat Lisa McCormick.
McCormick is asking New Jersey residents to sign a petition sponsored by the public interest organization Free Speech For People calling for Garland to resign.
“Donald Trump attempted to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021 and he engaged in a wide range of criminal acts —many in plain view — during his entire time in the White House,” said McCormick. “The second half of the Mueller Report is nothing less than a presentation of evidence on Trump’s criminal obstruction of justice by for reasons that defy understanding, Attorney General Merrick Garland failed to pursue an indictment.”
McCormick applauded Free Speech For People for pursuing legal efforts to disqualify Republicans such as Representatives Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn, and others as insurrectionists, claiming they are barred from elected office under the 14th Amendment.
“Attorney General Garland has shielded President Trump and his associates from accountability by not only failing to take action against them for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election and other federal crimes they may have committed, but also by defending Trump-era Department of Justice policies designed to protect Trump from the repercussions of his conduct,” said John C. Bonifaz, the president of Free Speech for People. “This includes covering up the key DOJ legal memo regarding Trump’s obstruction of justice, and defending Trump’s libel of a rape victim by claiming that he did so ‘within the scope of his office as President of the United States.’ The DOJ’s inaction—Garland’s inaction—endangers the rule of law. We are now calling on Attorney General Garland to resign from his post.”
As long as Trump and his co-conspirators walk free, Bonifaz says American democracy is in danger.
“We need an Attorney General who understands that danger and is willing to take action to protect democracy and the rule of law,” said Bonifaz.
“Democracies don’t come crashing down with a single decisive action,” said McCormick. “They are slowly chipped away at until they become something else. Whether Garland has been fooled into thinking it can’t happen here or whether he fears the optics of prosecuting a criminal president, America needs a top law enforcement official who exemplifies ‘justice for all’ by fiercely protecting our democracy.”
The Department of Justice’s inaction—Garland’s inaction—endangers the rule of law.
Even before the 2020 election, Trump conspired with key aides to sabotage a free and fair election by extorting (or, viewed another way, bribing) the President of Ukraine to embarrass Joe Biden politically in exchange for military aid.
Although the Senate failed to convict him in an impeachment trial for this conduct, that has no impact on criminal proceedings.
As the election approached, Trump bragged that he was deliberately sabotaging the Postal Service to limit voting-by-mail.
After his election defeat, Trump called Georgia’s Secretary of State and pressured him to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the presidential election outcome in that state. Two Members of Congress have already sent a criminal referral to the FBI regarding that phone call.
Since overturning Georgia’s election results alone wouldn’t yield a victory for Trump, it’s almost certain that he made or attempted similar conversations with elections officials in other states.
The culmination of this conspiracy was Trump’s speech inciting an angry mob to march on the Capitol.
His violent horde then stormed the Capitol, seizing the House and Senate chambers and forcing emergency evacuation of Congress—all in an effort to stop the certification of election results while Trump watched on television with obvious satisfaction and ignored pleas to intervene to stop the insurrection.