DOJ Signals Another Step Toward Broadening Jan. 6 Probe To Focus On Bigger MAGA Fish

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Amid criticism of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s narrow scope in the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation, the DOJ has hired a career federal prosecutor to help decide whether to investigate MAGAland’s election steal schemes.

It’s all part of the DOJ’s broader probe into the Capitol attack, signaling officials may be becoming increasingly interested in post-election events beyond just the violence itself, according to the New York Times.

Thomas Windom, a prosecutor from Maryland, was reportedly brought aboard several months ago and has been working with the DOJ’s criminal and national security divisions on the matter.

The Times reports that Windom has been tasked with determining if ex-President Donald Trump and his cronies’ efforts to undo the 2020 election ought to be investigated as part of the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe, which has largely focused on just the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol. The DOJ’s Windom addition signals a nod at the theory that legal scholars and the Jan. 6 select committee have been poking for more than a year — that Jan. 6 was about much more than the day of the attack.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/doj-justice-department-signal-expansion-capitol-insurrection-investigation-merrick-garland-prosecutor-thomas-windom

[Andy823]

1. K&R. nt

[Chainfire]

2. Try the SOB for sedition and don't worry about all of the smaller crimes. Focus damnit, focus!

Dispersion of resources and diversion from the real game. The "Justice Department" needs to change it's name to "The Department" because they have lost all sight of "justice."

With the film evidence and a little silver tongue magic, our local slip and fall shyster should be able to get a conviction with a week to prepare the case and two assistants, one of whom graduated from high school...

This is all for show folks. The Seditionist will be running for President instead of breaking rocks.

[agingdem]

5. Garland and the DOJ are clearing the debris and going after Trump..

the evidence will be unambiguous and incontrovertible ..no wiggle room, no daylight..and the indictment will be on multiple counts..treason, sedition, election fraud, stolen documents are not small crimes..

[agingdem]

11. How do you know Garland is doing nothing

and will allow Trump to skate?...I remember the Oklahoma City bombing..he knows what he's doing...this DOJ doesn't leak..an investigation done under a shroud of secrecy is as it should be..

[Joinfortmill]

17. 👍

[Marius25]

22. Because it was apparently reported that there's another OLC memo

that makes Garland reluctant to ever charge a former president.

I don't think Garland is willing break that precedent.

[agingdem]

26. but here's the rub..

January 6 is without precedent...the rules no longer apply...

[Ohio Joe]

27. You have a cite on that?

[emulatorloo]

34. Link?

[Joinfortmill]

16. 👍

[Joinfortmill]

15. I don't follow your logic.

[agingdem]

30. my logic is this...

Garland's DOJ does not leak..what little we do know comes from"people close to the DOJ"... Trump's attempted coup to overthrow the results of an election, the phone call to the top election official in Georgia to find the requisite number of votes, the fake electors, inciting an insurrection...all obvious, but the Justice Department needs law to back up the obvious, and that takes time...

[Ohio Joe]

3. Brought on a few months ago...

That coincides with the investigation nailing the first 11 for seditious conspiracy and getting the first conspirator to flip. Makes sense. I would not be at all surprised if he were focusing on Meadows right now.

[Chainfire]

10. When you kill a snake, you take off the head first and worry about the tail later.

[Ohio Joe]

12. When you prosecute a mob case in court...

You go from the bottom up.

Good thing President Biden hired someone who knows the law rather than a snake handler.

[Joinfortmill]

18. 👍

[emulatorloo]

35. Exactly. Then you get the little fish to flip on the big fish. Not sure why some DU'ers don't

understand basic prosecutorial strategy in mob cases etc. Thanks so much for your post.

[hamsterjill]

4. Yawn.

We are still trying to decide if Trump ought to be investigated? Good grief.

[Beastly Boy]

31. Who are "we"?

As far as I know, Trump has been and is being investigated. By House Committee on Oversight and Reform, by House select committee, by Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia, by New York state Attorney General Letitia James...

"We" are way past trying to decide.

[hamsterjill]

41. It's from the article paraphrased.

“The Times reports that Windom has been tasked with determining if ex-President Donald Trump and his cronies’ efforts to undo the 2020 election ought to be investigated as part of the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe”

Trump is still a free man. This my “yawn”. I don’t believe he will ever suffer any consequence for his crimes, and I believe he continues to be a threat to democracy. I don’t feel enough is being done by ANY judicial authority or he would already have been charged. The clock is ticking. Letecia James and Merrick Garland are big disappointments to me, in particular.

You disagree? Fine, that’s your right. But I see no real action and that worries me.

[Beastly Boy]

47. Ok, the reference helps. So "we" is Thomas Windom.

He was hired for a specific task: "determining if ex-President Donald Trump and his cronies’ efforts to undo the 2020 election ought to be investigated as part of the DOJ’s Jan. 6 probe".

Hardly a cause for 'Good grief".

[hamsterjill]

48. Good grief!!

No sense continuing this.

[Beastly Boy]

49. I second that. Appreciate your sensible decision.

[Chainfire]

8. Stall until the next set of gerrymandered ections and then sweep all of this silly shit

under a rug. Change all of the players, stop all of the investigations and seal all of the records for 50 years. Wait for it.

[Ohio Joe]

13. If that were true... Why did he not do that already?

Garland could have spent four years going after the low level thugs at the Capitol, had a bunch of show trials and called it a career. This was what I feared most at first.

But... He did not stop there.

He went after and caught the next level up and now has 12, including 2 not at the Capitol, charged with seditious conspiracy. Again, he could have stopped there... Had the trials and called it a career. At this point, he probably would have even been made to look as if he had gone above and beyond. A lot of people never expected the investigation to go that far.

But... Again, he did not stop there.

He has now flipped two of the seditious conspirators (that we know of) and in the agreement said he plans to use him in the Grand Jury (we'll get to that). He could have stopped there, not wanted them in a Grand Jury, and had the show trials doubly nailing the 12 in even bigger fashion and bigger TV clip drama with their own on the stand pointing the finger.

But... Still he did not stop there.

He convened a 7th Grand Jury for 1/6. You do not do that unless you plan to go higher... And any higher is TFG's inner circle, in this case (with the flipper being Josua James) that mean Roger Stone. The same Roger Stone that currently is having a fairly public falling out with maga world. We also know that at this point there are at least eight of TFG's inner circle under investigation... They are:

TOM BARRACK
RUDY GIULIANI
ROBERT COSTELLO
SIDNEY POWELL
MARK MEADOWS
ALEX JONES
ROGER STONE
ERIK PRINCE

For more on Grand Juries for 1/6, see here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216589606#post12

We also know what is needed... What is nice to have... What is known to be had... What is still needed... And how what is needed might be gotten to go directly after TFG, see this previous post of mine:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216561245

So... Where and when do you think Garland stops? Does he throw the Grand Jury to let them off? What if they indict? My suspicion is that this Grand Jury is just to go after the inner circle and not TFG yet... I think that for a reason... He has gone after this from day 1 as though it were a mob case, it certainly appears to me to be a text book mob case. Once he has indictments against the inner circle, you have a different set of defendants than any before... Older men who tried for a coup and failed... Older men now facing dying in jail going up against someone they know has them nailed.

You say the next election will "Change all of the players, stop all of the investigations and seal all of the records for 50 years. Wait for it" How exactly does that happen? I mean... Even if repugs were to take both houses (which I do not believe for a second) they can do nothing to stop the DOJ... Nothing. So... Got anything to back up this claim?

[Joinfortmill]

20. 👍

[Beastly Boy]

29. Oh damn, now the goal post is at "what took him so long?"

Way off "Garland is sitting on his hands" of ten months ago, way off "he is not going after the rioters" of six months ago, way off "he is not going after the insurrectionists" of three months ago, way off "he is not going after the big fish" of a month ago...

This is getting too predictable to hold my interest anymore.
,

[Beastly Boy]

42. You are entitled to your opinions, allright. You are even entitled to baseless speculations.

I just find your opinions becoming predictably irrelevant as the DOJ investigation moves on. And, apparently, so do you.You keep modifying your opinions away from your previous speculations which had been completely debunked just by the progress of the DOJ investigation alone, and move the goal post to new and different opinions no more informed by the said progress.

Speed has never been a genuine issue. Impatience and scapegoating have. Now, what is left of these issues is attempted justification for impatience and ongoing scapegoating.The former becomes nore awkward as time goes by. The latter doesn't disappear no matter what.

[Beastly Boy]

45. My pleasure. Keep in mind, it's just an opinion. Feel free to ignore it.

[Joinfortmill]

14. Like I said, Biden & Garland are patriots.

They're going after them all.

[gab13by13]

21. President Biden isn't allowed to go after them.

[Joinfortmill]

23. He nominated the guy who is going after them. Jeez.

[gab13by13]

19. What took so long,

that's what Clare McCaskill said today. 14 months and DOJ is finally investigating people who were not on the ground at the Capitol on 1/6.

We know DOJ has finally hired a prosecutor to investigate the suits and not the boots. We do not know if this new prosecutor even has a staff, hopefully he does. His task is to investigate whether the suits influenced the boots to obstruct Congress, that is his task. He is going for obstruction of Congress. 6 months ago Liz Cheney stated that Donald Trump should be investigated for obstruction of Congress, she publicly read the statute.

[SergeStorms]

28. I'd like to know that myself....

as would millions of others.

Merrick Garland probably would have made a good Supreme Court Justice, but in my opinion only, he has sucked as an Attorney General. He seems to have one speed: glacial.

I'm not at all sure he would have done anything if not for all of the external pressure - which has been substantial - placed upon him.

Maybe I'm totally wrong, and if I am I'll immediately issue a mea culpa like none ever issued before, but I sincerely doubt that.

[Beastly Boy]

32. That's the question only a DOJ investigator can answer.

Provided he/she is a dedicated professional who is intimately involved in the minutia of the said investigation.

But I suspect the extent of the explanation will require much patience, even if one is to be indulged with a response from anyone at DOJ.

[ificandream]

24. I know it's been the thing to criticize Garland, but I think he has something up his sleeve.

He's not working for social media, thank goodness. And I think things will come out good in the end.

[eallen]

25. About the time they decide that tumor actually is cancer and should be removed ...

The patient's grandchildren, now old themselves, will be fondly remembering him in their distant memories.

[Beastly Boy]

33. "They" are conducting the surgery, we are making snarky comments from the sidelines.

Freedom of speech notwithstanding, rushing a surgeon in the middle of removing a cancer is pretty bad manners.

[BWdem4life]

40. Narrow focus, where have I heard that before?

Oh yeah, just before the first impeachment trial. That turned out well...

[Emile]

44. Garland don't impress me much!

[Hotler]

50. I can only judge by results. nt