As the news almost daily brings new allegations of possible wrongdoing or even criminal activity by Donald Trump and his associates, Attorney General Merrick Garland is likely deciding whether or not the Dept. of Justice should indict the former president. But if the answer, seemingly obvious to many Americans, is “yes,” it “likely” will not happen before the November election.
“Federal prosecutors are likely to wait until after the November election to announce any charges against Donald Trump, if they determine he broke laws, according to people familiar,” Bloomberg News reports. “Under long-standing department policy, prosecutors are barred from taking investigative steps or filing charges for the purpose of affecting an election or helping a candidate or party, traditionally 60 days before an election. This year, that would be by Sept. 10, which makes it unlikely anything would be announced until after Nov. 8, said people who asked to remain anonymous speaking about potential Justice Department actions.”
The decision to wait until after the election, with the looming “if” caveat echoes a statement buried in a New York Times article published Wednesday morning that states, DOJ “officials are not expected to file charges imminently, if they ever do.”
That said, and as Bloomberg notes, there have been exceptions, including then-FBI Director Jim Comey‘s infamous announcement he was re-opening the investigation into Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails, ironically under the same heading but far different from the current investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified and top secret government documents. Trump’s actions have been described by some putting at risk some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets — secrets that protect our national defense and security.
Political and polling experts have said Comey’s announcement, which originally came in the form of a letter to Congress, “probably” caused Clinton to lose the 2016 presidential election.
Garland has proven to be scrupulously deliberative, far more than the former FBI Director, again ironically, who was later fired by Trump, who falsely claimed it was because of his decision to re-open the Clinton probe.
Bloomberg adds that “in 2020, former Attorney General William Barr announced in the weeks before the presidential election that department officials could make public announcements and take overt investigative steps with regard to voter fraud cases, a move seen as amplifying Trump’s unsupported narrative that there was massive voter fraud.”