OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
United States Marshalls who were assigned to Supreme Court Justices when protesters were outside of their homes were ordered not to arrest the demonstrators, which flies in the face of what Attorney General Merrick Garland said when he spoke to the Senate.
Republican Alabama Sen. Katie Britt confronted the attorney general with the training package the Marshalls used to protect the Justices which said arrests were not a priority, The Epoch Times reported. Republicans have argued that the protests were used to intimidate the Justices into changing their ruling which violates the Dobbs Act and that arrests ad prosecutions should have been made.
“U.S. Marshals have the authority to arrest anyone under that statute or any other federal statute,” the attorney general said. “The attorney general does not make the decision to arrest. The Marshals on the scene—they do make the decision of whether to arrest.”
But Sen. Britt called on the newly discovered manuals which showed that the Marshalls were “actively discouraged” from making arrests.
“Those materials show that the Marshals likely didn’t make any arrests because they were actively discouraged from doing so,” she said.
The manual advised the Marshals “to avoid, unless absolutely necessary, any criminal enforcement action involving the protestors.”
“Making arrests and initiating prosecutions is not the goal of the [Marshal Service] presence at SCOTUS residences,” it said.
“The ‘not’ is actually italicized and underlined,” Britt said.
The Marshalls were advised to “not to engage in protest-related enforcement actions, beyond those that were strictly and immediately necessary and tailored to ensure the physical security of the justices.”
“Mr. Attorney General, were you, at any point before your testimony in front of the Judiciary Committee, aware of these training materials or the fact that the Marshals had been heavily discouraged from making arrests under Section 1507?” Britt said.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this slide,” Garland said.
“[The Marshals’] first and principle job is to protect the lives and property of the members of the court,” the attorney general said.
“That’s their first priority,” the attorney general said, “but that doesn’t mean they are in any way precluded from bringing other kinds of arrests.”
The senator then advised Garland to amend comments he made to the Judiciary Committee to which he responded, “There’s nothing to amend because I’ve never seen those slides.”
“It’s clear the Marshals were given a different directive,” she said.
It has been a long time since Special Prosecutor John Durham started his investigation into the origins of the investigation into former President Donald Trump and the rumors of his campaign colluding with Russia, but it may be near its end.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has hinted that he expects Durham’s investigation to be done in the near future, The Daily Wire reported.
“The rare update on Durham’s inquiry into potential misconduct in the Trump-Russia probe came during testimony before a Senate committee. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) asked Garland about why former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Michael Sussmann, who was found not guilty of lying to the FBI in a blow to Durham’s investigation, apparently had a badge to get into the bureau’s headquarters in the run-up to the 2016 election,” The Daily Wire said.
“On the particular question about Sussman, I think we’re going to have to wait until Mr. Durham finishes his report, which should be relatively soon,” the attorney general said.
“I certainly don’t in any way want to interfere with him,” he said. “And he’s the one who would know the answer to that. On the more general question, I can certainly ask my team to look into how lawyers have special badges.”
Just The News founder John Solomon believes that Special Counsel John Durham is preparing to go after the FBI. Solomon spoke about the special counsel’s investigation into the Trump-Russia witch hunt and what Durham’s next move might be.
Solomon explained that he believes Durham is dealing with “two buckets.”
In one “bucket,” there are the last two indictments against officials who were connected to Hillary Clinton and their plan to feed the FBI false information about Trump-Russia conspiracies. He said the other “bucket” focuses on the FBI and whether agents knowingly mislead the FISA court to obtain warrants to spy on members of Trump’s 2016 campaign.
“But Durham developed really significant evidence that red flags, the stop-now warning signs go all the way back to August when Bruce Orr, in 2016 came to the FBI and said Christopher Steele is dumping a dossier. He hates Trump. He’s hired by Hillary Clinton and most of his information is raw and uncorroborated,” he said.
