In the cult classic “The Incredible Shrinking Man”, the character Scott Carey is trapped in a thick fog that gradually shrinks him to the point that he lives in a dollhouse and fights the house cat. At one point, Carey delivers a remarkably deep sentence: “The incredibly small and the incredibly vast finally meet – like closing a giant circle.”
If one image sums up the incredibly dwindling stature of Attorney General Merrick Garland, it’s that line in the wake of the FBI’s search for former President Donald Trump’s home at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. .
Two years ago, I was one of many who supported Garland when he was nominated for Attorney General. Although his personality seemed better suited to the courts than the cabinet, he is a person of impeccable integrity and ethics.
Doubts about Garland’s handling of controversy
Now if there are any doubts, it is not about his character, but about his personality in dealing with political controversies. Those concerns have grown over the past week.
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In the wake of the FBI’s search of Trump’s home, much remains unclear. The inventory list confirms that there were documents marked TS (Top Secret) and SCI (Sensitive Compartmental Information) – two of the highest levels of classification for materials. The retention of such documents by the former president appears to be a very serious violation.
However, the status of the documents is uncertain after Trump insisted that he release the material. While the declassified status of these documents would not preclude charges against the cited criminal law provisions, it could have a significant impact on the viability of any prosecution.
In other controversies, Garland seemed largely reactive and standard in dealing with questions of bias or abuse in his department.
During his hearing, Garland repeatedly promised that political considerations would not affect him as Attorney General. Yet the Justice Department has gone from one political controversy to another in just two years with no sign of Garland being firmly in charge.
Garland, for example, was criticized last year for quickly deploying a task force to investigate parents and others who challenge school boards.
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The party in power investigating the opposing party
When Garland got clear demands for independent action, he folded. He has refused to appoint special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation.
By refusing special counsel, Garland has removed the president’s greatest threat. Unlike the US attorney investigating the president’s son, a special counsel is expected to release a report detailing the extent of the Biden family’s alleged influence and foreign contacts.
Similarly, the Justice Department is conducting a grand jury investigation into the Capitol riots aggressively pursuing Trump associates and Republican figures, including seizing the phone of a member of Congress. That investigation covers not only the integrity of the US election, but also the status of Biden’s potential opponent in 2024.
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The investigation also raises concerns about the party in power investigating the opposing party. It is breathtaking that Garland would see no need for independent or special counsel given the continuing deep division and mistrust in this country.
Democrats often compare the Jan. 6 inquiry to Watergate, but fail to note that precisely because of these inherent political conflicts, the Watergate inquiry was led by independent counsel.
Then came the FBI search for Mar-a-Lago. Although Garland said he personally approved the operation, he did little to mitigate the inevitable political explosion. This country is a powder keg and the FBI has a documented history of making false statements to courts and falsifying evidence in support of a previous Trump investigation.
Still, there was no prepared statement or response for days, allowing speculation and anger to grow. When Garland responded Thursday, he offered a standard defense of the division, seeking only the release of the warrant and the inventory list.
If there was one opportunity for total transparency, including the release of the FBI’s affidavit, this was it. Still, Garland refused to act further. He declined to request the release, even as the news media reported a series of Justice Department leaks, including allegations that Trump brought nuclear weapons secrets to Mar-a-Lago. Because his department was leaking like a sieve, Garland withheld the affidavit that would set the record straight.
Former prosecutors have argued that the Justice Department wants to keep the details of the affidavit confidential to protect the identities of sources and protect classified information from disclosure.
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Garland is not primarily political
Despite this record, I don’t consider Garland to be inherently political unlike predecessors like Eric Holder.
Garland sometimes looks more like a pedestrian than a driver when making decisions in his own department. Top positions were given to figures denounced as far-left advocates on issues of relegating the police to racial justice. To the moderate Garland, these didn’t seem natural choices. Nor was the department’s recent controversial move to circumvent a Trump leniency to prosecute a Florida nursing home operator.
And Garland has not responded to new allegations of bias at the FBI and Justice regarding downplaying evidence related to the Hunter Biden laptop controversy.
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Also of concern is the decision to appoint the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit office to head the Washington DC office. The agent, Steven D’Antuono, led the disastrous investigation into the alleged plot to kidnap Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer. Given the importance of the Jan. 6 investigation, it is mind-boggling that the Justice Department would make this controversial transfer at this point.
A Attorney General cannot be motivated by optics in his decisions, but he cannot ignore optics if it undermines the integrity of his department. The search for Mar-a-Lago had historically profound political consequences, including for the approaching midterm elections. Garland must have known it would be seen by Republicans as a largely political move.
But with leaks coming from his department undermining Trump’s claims, Garland offered only “trust us, we’re the government” assurances while resisting the release of the affidavit.
As Scott Carey faced his diminished stature, he asked, “I kept shrinking, to become… what? The infinitesimal? What was I?” That’s a grueling question for anyone, but it’s disastrous for an attorney general.
It’s not that Merrick Garland is absent, but that his presence often seems insignificant.
Jonathan Turley is Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of the USA TODAY Board of Contributors. Follow him on Twitter: @JonathanTurley
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI Mara-a-Lago Search: Garland’s Pursuit of Trump Takes Shape of Its Own
