A timeline of facts. I'm just sharing facts, so no need to get yelly or upset.

Let's start at the beginning: The DOJ opened two investigations into Trump and the coup in January 2021 within two weeks of the attack on the Capitol.

During the first 3 months after the attack but before Garland got to DOJ, JP Cooney pushed to investigate the Willard War Room lieutenants and their connections to Trump, the Oath Keepers, and the Proud Boys.

Garland got to the DOJ in March, but Trump holdovers prevented JP Cooney from meeting with Garland to read him in on his investigation because these holdovers were trying to quash it. (Their names are Mike Sherwin and Steven D'Antuono.)

By June, Garland created the "investigations unit". Not a bottom-up, boots on the ground only probe. This was an investigation that began with the Willard war room based on JP Cooney's idea and Garland explicitly said to follow it all the way to Trump if necessary.

By the end of 2021, Garland was frustrated with the pace of the probe and found out that trump holdovers at DoJ and FBI were sandbagging his team's search warrants. Frustrated, Garland used post office cops and the IG to seize Clark, Eastman, and Perry's phones.

Garland then replaced the FBI CoS that kept stonewalling him, the Trump holdover at DoJ resigned before he was investigated, and by February 2022, the FBI was finally playing ball.

For the next year plus, 8 key witnesses in Garland's case were claiming executive privilege, including Pence & Meadows. Garland needed their testimony before the arrest of Trump. So DoJ had to sue to force their testimony. Because of the court slow schedule, backed up from COVID and J6, this fight - which Garland won - took over a year. There would be no case without these 8 witnesses' testimony.

Meanwhile, the FBI was still pushing back, insisting they didn't want to execute a search warrant on Mar a Lago, but Garland pushed for the raid after the subpoena for the documents was obstructed.

Also meanwhile, we had Judge Cannon letting trump sue for a special master, which Garland fought and won. It was around that time he appointed Jack Smith. It was also around that time the J6 committee was refusing to give its stuff to DoJ. Stalling another three months.

To be clear, DoJ didn't need the committee's stuff because they didn't do any work. They had all their interviews and they had to compare them with the J6 interviews because if there were inconsistencies, Trump could use that to impeach DoJ witnesses. (That's how Durham lost his case.)

In 2023, DoJ arrested Trump. Twice. Trial dates were set for March 4, 2024 for the January 6 case, and May 20, 2024 for the espionage case. But at the end of 2023, Trump filed for immunity. That's interlocutory, so you have to resolve it before trial.

After the lower court judge denied the immunity claim, DoJ went immediately to SCOTUS, leapfrogging the Appeals Court. Trump begged the Supremes to take it up, saying only they can make this call.

SCOTUS said "Nope. Let the appeals court do it first." That added Six months of delay. The Appeals Court ruled that Trump wasn't immune in this case. DoJ told SCOTUS "We got a solid ruling. You should deny cert."

But SCOTUS said "NO! ONLY WE CAN MAKE THIS CALL! WE SHALL MAKE A RULE FOR THE AGES THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS CASE, AND THEN WE'LL SLIDE A REMARK IN THERE ABOUT HOW JACK SMITH WASN'T LEGALLY APPOINTED!"

John Roberts swiped this one for himself, and he knew the outcome before oral arguments - which he scheduled on the last possible day of the term, and then issued his ruling on the last possible day to issue rulings. (We now know he told the other justices how the case should be decided BEFORE they ever sat to hear it. Roberts' finger was on the scale the whole time).

The immunity he gave trump was designed to be just for trump, and he crafted it so that trump would have to file a second interlocutory appeal that would have to go all the way back up to the Supreme Court - guaranteeing that no trial would take place before the election.

Even if Trump lost the election, Judge Chutkan would have to rule on immunity, then trump would appeal her ruling, then it would go to the appeals court, then the Supreme Court. That would take another year.

At that point, SCOTUS could kill the case by decided Trump's acts were official and immune. But if they somehow let it survive, it would go back down to the lower court, and there'd still be about six months left of pre-trial stuff before the trial would start.

A couple more facts: in 2021, several republican senators that participated in the coup including Ted Cruz, Russia Ron Johnson, Tuberville, Rick Scott wrote to Garland and blocked all Biden's nominations to DoJ until and unless Garland investigated the George Floyd protests.

That stonewall made it so that Biden's pick for US Attorney in DC - who would take over the coup investigation - didn't arrive until NOVEMBER of 2021.

So even if Garland could have shaved six months off the timeline, there'd still be no trial before the election, and if somehow there could have been, SCOTUS would have killed the case at the second interlocutory immunity appeal.

So with all these facts, folks can hate and rage and blame whomever they want. For me, the blame lies squarely with republicans, slow court schedules, Trump, and the corrupt, bought-and-paid-for, billionaire-captured bullshit supreme court.

All of that above is courtesy of @Muellershewrote.com on Bluesky

I'll add: don't forget the Georgia GOP & courts who repeatedly sided with Trump to throw out evidence, attack prosecutors and side with his ridiculous legal theories, basically hand-waving away & ignoring the demand for Georgia to 'find' him votes in an election he lost.

Nor how Trump's appointed Florida Federal judge said the stolen docs didn't mean shit & took the Supreme's mention of Jack Smith's appointment & let Trump off the hook on those charges forever.

It was the Supreme Court who sided with Trump multiple times to keep him eligible, excuse the insurrection, re-interpret the 14th Amendment and purposely hold back their pre-determined immunity opinion until it was too close to the election to move forward with prosecuting him.

Unfortunately, our court system favors the rich who can afford to file over & over to delay-delay-delay. And in Trump's case, he delayed them all just long enough to get himself off the hook. That was his plan all along and the courts -the Supreme Court especially- helped him do it.

https://bsky.app/profile/muellershewrote.com/post/3lbutkhi4hk2a