There has been a lot of speculation about how much influence Joe Biden has in the Department of Justice.
Biden has always claimed Garland acts independently of the White House, but a New York Times report that slipped through the crack in April 2022 says otherwise.
The original report from the New York Times was published on April 2, 2022. Reporters Katie Benner, Katie Rogers, and Michael S. Schmidt wrote the report, which had those infamous inside sources that claimed Biden was frustrated with Garland and let it be known regarding the prosecution of Trump. It stated:
"The attorney general's deliberative approach has come to frustrate Democratic allies of the White House and, at times, President Biden himself. As recently as late last year, Mr. Biden confided to his inner circle that he believed former President Donald J. Trump was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted, according to two people familiar with his comments.
"And while the president has never communicated his frustrations directly to Mr. Garland, he has said privately that he wanted Mr. Garland to act less like a ponderous judge and more like a prosecutor who is willing to take decisive action over the events of Jan. 6."
Since the report in the Times, Trump has had four federal indictments and 91 counts filed against him. The assumption here is that even though Biden never directly communicated his wishes to Garland, someone in that room more than likely did.
Both the White House and the Department of Justice have denied that Biden has had any influence in the Department of Justice.
The most recent denial came in September of this year, with Attorney General Merrick Garland testifying before Congress, where he stated:
"We apply the same laws to everyone.
"Our job is not to take orders from the president, from Congress, or from anyone else about who or what to criminally investigate."
We all know how this works, right? A president does not have to pick up a phone to have influence. All he merely needs to do is verbalize it in a room with the right people, and his wishes are then relayed to the Attorney General or whatever other department he is trying to influence. That is what they call plausible deniability.
The counter to Biden having influence over the Department of Justice would be the charges that were filed against Hunter Biden, but I'm afraid I have to disagree with those who say that Hunter getting indicted proves that Biden has no influence over Garland.
We need to wait and see the exact deal that Hunter Biden gets because I believe Biden wanted Garland to indict him to make it look like he is acting independently, then cut him a sweetheart deal so Hunter never sees a day inside a prison cell. There is simply no way I believe that Hunter Biden's legal problems were not a subject discussed before Garland accepted the job as Attorney General.
So, the question is if Joe Biden wanted Trump indicted, and the obvious answer here is yes, especially when you heard the comments made by Biden recently about there being no doubt in his mind that Trump is an insurrectionist. I don't think that Biden, or anyone, thought the reaction would be for everyone to fall in line with Trump once those charges were filed.
This is one of those questions that will probably never be answered because we would need those involved to fess up, and that surely will not happen with Biden in office, and possibly never happen if this was done through the inner circle of the administration.
