Days after the raid on President Trump’s home in Florida, Attorney General Merrick Garland finally came out of hiding Thursday and gave a short statement. One key question is what Garland knew about it.
“Since the warrant involved the unprecedented request to search the home of a former president, [Ellen Cohen, who worked with Judge Bruce Reinhart when he was a prosecutor] said the warrant likely would have been vetted at the highest levels of the Justice Department, including Attorney General Merrick Garland,” USA Today reported Wednesday.
However, other reports tried to claim that Garland wasn’t involved in any way, shape, or form. Newsweek reported that “[a] senior Justice Department source says that Garland was regularly briefed on the Records Act investigation, and that he knew about the grand jury and what material federal prosecutors were seeking. He insists, though, that Garland had no prior knowledge of the date and time of the specific raid, nor was he asked to approve it.”
Also for our VIP members: The FBI Needs to Raid Barack Obama’s Home Next. Here’s Why.
“I know it’s hard for people to believe,” the official told Newsweek, “but this was a matter for the U.S. Attorney and the FBI.”
Hard to believe, indeed. In fact, I dare speculate that this was the main reason Garland chose to speak out and why he admitted he approved the search warrant.
“I personally approved the decision to seek a search warrant in this matter,” Garland said.
But what exactly does this mean? If he approved the warrant, did he have knowledge of the specifics of the raid? That was left unanswered. However, in light of the Newsweek report that sought to distance Garland from the raid, one can’t help but wonder why Garland wasn’t more specific about his knowledge of or involvement in the raid itself.
We’ve already seen the White House distance itself from the raid, and the Department of Justice try to distance Garland from the raid. Republicans are vowing to investigate, and Garland’s first and, as of now, only comment on the matter was a largely boilerplate statement that offered nothing new and clarified nothing. On the surface, it looks like he took responsibility for the raid, but in reality, he did not. After three days of silence, we should have gotten a lot more, and I can’t help but feel the reason we’re being jerked around with vague statements is that there’s a cover-up underway.