Merrick Garland HITS BACK Against Judge Cannon

hi everyone Harry here to talk about attorney general meric carin's blistering criticism of Judge eileene Canon for her opinion dismissing the mara Lago indictment all right let me put this into context the sort of first point the Department of Justice generally is not in the business of personally assailing judges for their opinions sure they'll say they were wrong and appeal them to the court but to actually you know publicly decry them is a whole another thing second if the Department of Justice were in the business of doing it the Attorney General of the United States Department of Justice would not be a figure who would uh be taking the lead at making uh those criticisms and third if the Department of Justice were in the business of doing it and some Attorneys General were in the business of taking the lead attorney general Merrick garland would not be one of those uh who would who would be uh out there cracking the whip against individual decisions so this just tells you a that it's pretty extraordinary criticism and certainly not it was to it in an interview uh so you know with NBC News and so would have been very carefully considered and two what it mainly tells you is just how completely off the reservation uh the Eileen Canon opinion is as I think I wrote fairly in my opet on the case it's it doesn't even make sense to analyze it as law and say oh that third argument doesn't quite hold up because of such and such a precedent it's just a you know um a political screed uh written to you know in the voice of Clarence Thomas to please Donald Trump that's what it is all right so let's go then to what Merck Garland has to say and by the way if it weren't something like that if it were asinine if it were very political if it were completely you know inan in its legal reasoning the department would just uh take the appeal and go forward and do its arguing court and that is especially true for um merri Garland all right so not so not only is he in the game criticizing her in a public interview but withering uh is this for more than 20 years says judge Garland I was a federal judge do I look like somebody who would make that basic mistake about the law I don't think so so I mean there's almost a kind of and I say this admiringly everyone knows I'm a big fan of the Attorney General um you know there's almost a sort of third grade quality of you know I don't think so do I you know this is how basic it is I you know I was a federal judge for more than 20 years I he would never make that kind of basic um mistake and uh he goes on to to make the casee and it's just overwhelming uh that she is completely uh is Canon out of step with court after court after court beginning with the US Supreme Court in the uh the Nixon case uh the Richard Nixon out of water so he says our position is that it's constitutional and valid okay that's fine that's why we appealed okay that's fine I will say that this is the same process of appointing special councel as was followed in the previous administration for special councils Duran special counsil Muller multiple special councils over the decades going back to Watergate and the special prosecutor in that case and by the way a little um historical footnote here Merck Garland got his start in the doj as the Special Assistant to the attorney general he was the paradigmatic you know well scrubbed a hot shot just off to uh prestigious cork ships and it was just at this uh period that that he cut his teeth so when he says that he knows um what he means but now until now every single Court including the Supreme Court that has considered the legality of a special counsel appointment has upheld it so you know she is it's not like she's going against the grain uh she's you know uh going against the the entire fields of the of the law for years and years and years so you know it's extraordinary kind of criticism but then he ends with a point you recall that some people have said okay just let's just file it with a US attorney uh and that way it's not a special Council and that way you get around the um e Canon ruling and you can refile it and there's no delay Etc and there would be a great advantage of there not being a delay but what that um line of argument overlooks and importantly is the Department of Justice's interest in the special councel um regulation having it there to use it and not just having it there as a general tool but but having it there as a bulwark for public confidence in the doj's work because when one when you have a naked conflict with someone on the other side of a political aisle people could say whether fairly or not in fact the doj would say unfairly the doj would say mer G would say we couldn't prosecute anybody completely fairly but he knows 100% if it's US versus Donald Trump that is going to uh alienate or at least make many people suspicious so you need it and for that reason he has the the department has insisted on going the appeal route on on taking uh cannons ruling on um directly Getting It reversed and even though that means more time even though it's it was probably off the any possibility already but even though it means no chance of having uh any proceedings this year you know if they had the next day filed it in another court with a US attorney possibly but there you know the doj has this lookout for the special counsel regulation both for its own interest in being able to handle certain kinds of cases and for the public interest which Merrick Garland cares about deeply that the public have confidence and that the the special counsel because in independent to some degree isn't out there that that it be not precisely not what Donald Trump says it is so even though there would be a way it's OB he gives Canon's opinion obvious back of the hand worse slap with the back of the hand um they are they want to go appeal they want to go to the 11th circuit notwithstanding all the time it takes and by by the way the very distinct possibility that Donald Trump becomes president and the whole they have to fold up their tent completely but that's because of the doj's institution to R protecting the special Council RS so um Garland's not just Peak but but kind of really strong push back and very kind of Elementary terms I've been a judge for 20 years do I look like uh I I would make that basic mistake about the law I don't think so uh is not simply you know a lot of people I'm among them feel like you know personal resentment that a judge could so be in the tank as Canon is for Trump but there's but it's the institutional interest that Garland is absolutely uh determined to protect and that is uh that in order to promote the PO you have to be a able to try people from the you know other side of the aisle and you want public confidence and indeed he came into the a department really uh stripped of a lot of public confidence and in some ways it's the sort of first Axiom of his rule was to restore it restore the the idea that the department works without fear or favor and can handle any case including these sorts with a special counsel so that's why I think you see him uh decide you know thinking about it in a studied way really coming after uh Canon with what is for the Attorney General of the United States some very pungent criticism talk to you later thanks for tuning in if you enjoyed this video and other talking feds content please take a second to like And subscribe talk to you later