President Joe Biden longed for his Department of Justice (DOJ) to take action and prosecute former President Donald Trump over what transpired on January 6, 2021 — a wish that came to fruition this week, over a year after reports of Biden’s initial complaints on the matter.
In April 2022, the New York Times delved into the priorities of Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Biden administration, the latter of which had been hoping Garland would be more aggressive and take more decisive action to target Trump for January 6. According to the Times’ report, Biden had “confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments.”
“And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6,” according to the report. At the time, Garland said they would “do the right thing” and “follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
“Still, Democrats’ increasingly urgent calls for the Justice Department to take more aggressive action highlight the tension between the frenetic demands of politics and the methodical pace of one of the biggest prosecutions in the department’s history,” the Times continued.
In 2022, the New York Times reported Biden was frustrated his AG Merrick Garland hadn't prosecuted his chief political rival Donald Trump yet for J6 and believed it had to happen. Today, he got what he asked his DOJ for via the New York Times. https://t.co/yzaGCxvCqe
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) August 1, 2023
Biden’s wish came true on Tuesday after Special Counsel Jack Smith announced a grand jury in Washington, D.C. indicted Trump on charges relating to the riot at the U.S. Capitol, which took place on January 6.
“Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to stay in power. So for more than two months following Election Day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election that he actually won,” the indictment reads. “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false.”
Trump was indicted on four counts, which includes conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.
Trump anticipated the indictment before it was officially reported, writing on social media, “I hear that Deranged Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M.”
“Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!” he exclaimed, releasing a full statement as well, which he shared on social media.
During an interview with Breitbart News last week, Trump made it clear he would fire Smith if he makes it to the White House again.
“I wouldn’t keep him,” Trump told Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle. “Jack Smith? Why would I keep him? He is—look, he’s gone after other people. He’s been overturned unanimously in the Supreme Court. He’s destroyed a lot of lives. Lives have been destroyed. He’s destroyed people—he’s destroyed lives… He was Lois Lerner and the IRS case, which was one of the most egregious abuses what happened. The government had to apologize to people. He went after Christians. This is a guy—he’s a wild man. I call him deranged. He’s been overturned. He went after the governor of Virginia—overturned unanimously. He went after another senator or something and was overturned. What he’s done is just horrible. The abuse of power—it is prosecutorial misconduct.”
While Trump has received support from many Republican allies — including Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who said the indictments are simply a distraction from the probes into the Biden family — others have not been so supportive. Former Vice President Mike Pence, for instance, suggested that Trump essentially put “himself over the Constitution.”
Today's indictment serves as an important reminder: anyone who puts himself over the Constitution should never be President of the United States.
— Mike Pence (@Mike_Pence) August 2, 2023
Trump on Wednesday expressed gratitude to his supporters, striking a positive tone by noting that these indictments have “AWOKEN THE WORLD TO THE CORRUPTION, SCANDAL, & FAILURE THAT HAS TAKEN PLACE IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS.”
