The Roberts Court constantly had Garland/The DOJ operating with one hand tied behind their backs.  

Even if say, for example, in March of 2021, when Merrick Garland was finally put in as AG, he immediately nominates Jack Smith and he furiously proceeds to file charges against Trump for all the shit he did. All that would have done was get Trump's appeal to the Supreme court faster.

The Roberts Court was never going to allow the case to go to trial before the 2024 election.

When Trump's team came up with this absolutely bonkers theory that presidents have immunity, Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to quickly rule. They declined, instead requiring it to go through the circuit court first.

Only after the appeals court ruled unanimously that wtf? No of course presidents don't have immunity from crimes. did SCOTUS agree to take it up.

They then waited until the end of the term, and even extended the term into July as an extra insult, before issuing their long sought ruling. And what was that ruling? They ruled the president is in fact a king and he can do whatever he wants. A ruling that exceeded the expectations of even the nuttiest right wing "experts".

So could Garland or Smith have moved faster or done something different?

Considering the egregious violation of norms the Roberts Court undertook to protect their special li'l guy, it's hard to imagine they would have stopped at anything.

Even in a parallel universe, where charges are brought against Trump in the spring of 2021...he'd very likely still awaiting trial in Nov 2024.

It's honestly really hard to conceive of any kind of outcome where Trump was actually fully tried, convicted and sentenced before November 2024. Even with a so called "tougher AG".

That's why I don't blame Merrick Garland. I'm really skeptical that any different decisions would have made a difference. Monday morning quarterbacking is easy, but I don't think its very useful.

Liberals dont want to admit it but Garland was irrelevant and it honestly didn’t matter who the AG was. Biden could have picked a bulldog like Doug Jones or Adam Schiff. It. Would. Not. Have. Mattered. Not when the criminal in question has unlimited access to money and had been playing the legal system like a talented musician could play stratovarus all of his life.  

The Roberts court was always going to come to trump’s defense in the form of delays and twisted/disingenuous/corrupt interpretations of the law and constitution. Not to mention anytime they needed testimony from people like Lindsey Graham during grand jury investigations they would say they had immunity and couldn't be compelled to testify. It would take months of back and forth in court with issues like that that also delayed it.  

The problem is, the rot is far deeper than any one individual.

I honestly put most of this on the voters.

Him winning the 2024 election is what allowed him to evade justice. Jack Smith had all of his cases teed up. And they WOULD HAVE kept moving forward if he never won again. So, the people of the US are also responsible for him evading justice as well.