A Hard Rain from the Right Is Going to Fall on Merrick Garland

By J. Max Robins, July 28, 2022

With each new startling revelation from the January 6 Committee, the drumbeat calling for Merrick Garland to ramp up the DOJ’s investigation into Donald Trump’s role in the failed coup has grown louder.  And the loudest demands for action have come from the left. Indeed, if you were reading the right wing commentariat, there was nary a word about Garland’s efforts. It was as if the United States Attorney General was in the witness protection program, living under an assumed name in a gated community outside of Phoenix.

However, that could all change, and soon. This week (at long last, according to his many critics) Garland began a finely-calibrated media campaign, intended to demonstrate that he was ready to take his investigation “wherever it might go” even if that meant indicting the Mar-a-Lago Commander-in-Chief himself.

The Attorney General Speaks!

The centerpiece of Garland’s “I’m still here” tour was a much-hyped sit-down with NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt on Tuesday. During the interview, Garland called Justice’s investigation into the coup attempt,  “the most wide-ranging investigation in [the department’s] history.”  Without naming Trump, he clearly intimated that if the investigation led to criminal charges against the  ex-President, he was ready to go there.

Shortly after  Merrick’s interview with Holt, the Washington Post dropped a homepage bombshell stating that Trump’s actions on and around January 6 were central in the Justice Department’s criminal probe, increasing the  possibility that an ex-POTUS was in serious danger of an indictment, something that’s never happened to an Oval Office denizen before.

What the Future Holds

This one-two media blitz might finally mollify some on the left. But it could also set right wing hounds howling on Garland’s trail. If it does, well, he got a little taste of their methods on Monday. A Fox News.com “exclusive”  article emblazoned with the (decidedly clunky) headline: “Merrick Garland Communications with Company Son-in-Law Co-founded Demanded in Missouri AG Investigation,” provided a little preview of what Garland’s future would look like if he is serious about pursuing a possible indictment of Trump The piece trumpeted an investigation by Missouri’s Republican AG  Eric Schmidt into Panorama Education, a company, co-founded by Alexander Tanner, Garland’s son-in-law, alleging the operation was surveying students about their views on race, politics and gender. Fox’s breathless promotion of the nothing-burger investigation looked like an initial attempt to turn Tanner into a Hunter Biden-esque Garland albatross. (BTW: The hit piece appeared in lockstep with leaks in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times that Mark Short and Greg Jacobs, top Mike Pence aides, were talking to investigators in Garland’s office.)

Tornado Time

Even as the Right rouses itself to take on Garland, some critics on the left continue to be skeptics and point to the AG’s don’t-rock-the boat establishment rep. I’d be the first to admit that Garland’s long friendship with D.C. power broker lawyer Jamie Gorelick, who hired him when she was the top assistant AD in the Clinton administration and currently represents Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, isn’t great optics. I’m sure there are those who won’t be satisfied that Garland has done his job until Trump is sporting an orange jumpsuit that goes well with his skin.

Some doubters on the left will dismiss Garland’s media tour as Washington kabuki window dressing and point as proof to a muted response from the right the rest of the week. Maybe they are correct. But if the Justice Department is headed in the same direction as the January 6 Committee – toward Trump’s doorstep with an indictment in hand – this is just the calm before a right wing media storm. Actually, tornado may be a more apt word, and when it gets here, Merrick Garland will be in the center of it.

J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is  executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes. Read more from J. Max Robins at www.jmaxrobins.com

Interested in more news about right-wing media curated especially for mainstream audiences? Subscribe to our free daily newsletter.