Merrick Garland’s DOJ just tipped off how deep its January 6th probe runs
Weeks ago, major news outlets reported that Merrick Garland’s DOJ has had a dedicated prosecutor and active grand jury carrying out a January 6th probe into Trump world since at least January. The question has been just how deep that probe runs. Today we got a glimpse into that.
ABC News is reporting that when former Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin testified to the January 6th Committee, DOJ counsel objected to some of the questions, on the grounds that Sherwin’s answers could interfere with the DOJ’s ongoing criminal probe into January 6th.
We’re about to see doomsday types and conspiracy theorists point to this as supposed proof that Garland is somehow conspiring to protect Trump world. But such claims are… absurd, to put it mildly.
What’s really going on here is that Sherwin is the guy who went on 60 Minutes and tainted the DOJ’s probe by making assertions about the probe, prompting a judge to tell the DOJ to shut Sherwin up. It’s still not clear if Sherwin is just an idiot, or if he was purposely trying to sabotage the case in order to let Trump world off the hook. But it is clear that the DOJ still feels compelled to keep Sherwin from tainting certain aspects of its January 6th probe, which is clearly still ongoing.
The January 6th Committee has a right to fight for as much testimony as it can get out of someone like Sherwin. But that’s because in some ways, the committee has goals that conflict with the DOJ’s goals. The committee is attempting to educate the public about everything that happened in relation to January 6th, in comparatively swift fashion. The DOJ is attempting to get convictions against as many guilty people as possible. The DOJ’s ongoing desire to prevent a known blabber like Sherwin from tainting those criminal cases is a sign of just how deep the DOJ’s January 6th probe runs.
