Legal Advocates Call For Merrick Garland To Resign For Not Prosecuting Trump

The non-partisan legal advocacy group Free Speech For People is calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to resign because Trump has not been prosecuted.

Group Calls For Merrick Garland To Resign

The group Free Speech For People wrote in part in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:

Garland’s failures have not been limited to Trump. He has failed to investigate Members of Congress who appear to have helped plan the January 6 insurrection, including Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Rep. Mo Brooks( Ala.), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (N.C.), Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Rep. Louie Gohmert (Texas), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.).

Meanwhile, DOJ inexcusably sat on its hands since a bipartisan majority of the House of Representatives voted on October 21 to hold Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 committee. The last time that the House referred a contempt of Congress charge to DOJ, then-President Reagan’s prosecutors immediately brought the matter to a grand jury; it returned an indictment just nine days after the House vote. 

Furthermore, Garland’s failures have not been limited to inaction. He has actively defended or continued many Trump-era DOJ policies, including the coverup of 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.” 

For all these reasons, Garland is no longer fit to serve as Attorney General. His previous record of federal service should not blind us to the fact that he is simply the wrong person for this job at this time. Perhaps he can still contribute to the country in other ways. But as long as Trump and his co-conspirators walk free, 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. Merrick Garland must resign.

The Justice Department’s slow reaction to the referral of Steve Bannon for criminal prosecution is harming the 1/6 Committee’s investigation and giving green light to coup plotters to refuse to cooperate.

Merrick Garland is by all accounts a good person, but there are concerns that he has been away from DOJ for too long, and the Justice Department that he remembers is not the same as the broken department in desperate need of reform and repair that he is running now.

Patience on the left is wearing thin with the Attorney General, and for every good move that he has made to protect voting rights, the elephant in the room is Trump and the DOJ’s lack of action in response to the 1/6 attack.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association