Garland has been criticized for waiting nearly two years before appointing Jack Smith to lead the election interference case.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has received criticism from left-leaning figures after the federal case over President-elect Donald Trump’s alleged criminal attempts to overturn the 2020 election results was dropped.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan approved special counsel Jack Smith’s request to dismiss the case surrounding the events leading up to the January 6 attack on the Capitol in the wake of Trump’s 2024 election victory.
The Department of Justice has a policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents. Trump, who denied four federal charges, was frequently accused of using delay tactics to push the case beyond November’s election. This includes filing legal proceedings arguing that he cannot be prosecuted for actions committed while in office, a position the Supreme Court largely agreed with in a historic July decision.
Garland, who leads the DOJ, has now faced backlash for not moving forward with the investigation quickly enough, including waiting until November 2022 to appoint Smith as special counsel. Others have said this delay ultimately led to Trump winning the 2024 election and being allowed to reenter the White House next year.
Tristan Snell, a former assistant attorney general for New York who led the investigation and prosecution into Trump University and spoke at this year’s Democratic National Convention, posted on X, formerly Twitter: “Merrick Garland will either go down as the most ineffective attorney general in American history—or there will no longer be America or history as we know it.” In 2016, the Republican settled multiple lawsuits over claims his Trump University had defrauded students. The president-elect had denied any wrongdoing.
A number of other progressive figures have criticized Garland after the case was dropped.
