Merrick Garland's Last-Minute Push to Corrupt the 2024 Election

While throwing a kitchen-sink J6 case against Trump in Washington, Merrick Garland is sitting on what is expected to be a bombshell DOJ report confirming extensive use of FBI informants in January 6.

Consider the following contrasting scenarios:

• Attorney General Merrick Garland is advancing a dead-letter indictment against Donald Trump in Washington related to the events of January 6 with a kitchen-sink 165-page “immunity” motion filled with retread accusations about the former president’s conduct before and on that day. Special Counsel Jack Smith is expected to file another document this week in a desperate attempt to advance the January 6 narrative, an issue only of interest to the bloodthirsty base of the Democratic Party.

• Attorney General Merrick Garland is sitting on a bombshell report expected to reveal the number of FBI confidential human sources, known as informants, involved in January 6. The findings of a years-long internal investigation conducted by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz are contained in a draft report recently submitted to Garland for review; Horowitz told Congress last month he does not expect the report to be released before Election Day.

The dichotomy, of course, represents the latest example of the weaponization of the Justice Department at the same time Garland laughably insists no such thing is happening. While the brazenly political prosecution of Trump continues in the courtroom of Obama-appointee Judge Tanya Chutkan to produce damaging headlines as Americans begin voting for president, Garland refuses to allow the American people to see the biggest missing piece in the J6 puzzle: how many FBI informants participated in the Capitol protest?

Horowitz, for his part, appears to be part of the delay. He told the House Weaponization committee on September 25 that he placed a “pause” on his internal inquiry, which he initiated one week after the Capitol protest, to avoid interfering with a separate, unspecified criminal investigation into January 6.

Some speculated Horowitz was referring to the ongoing prosecution of January 6 protesters—but that didn’t add up since the prosecution continues to this day with new arrests announced each week. A recent filing by Trump’s lawyers in the J6-related case confirmed Horowitz’s office participated in the initial stages of the DOJ’s sprawling investigation into Trump and his associates. Further, roughly a dozen agents with the DOJ IG executed an armed raid of the home of Jeffrey Clark, former assistant associate attorney general under Trump, in June 2022. (Smith dropped Clark as a co-conspirator in the special counsel’s watered down superseding J6 indictment following the Supreme Court’s immunity decision.)

Garland appointed Smith in November 2022, which presumably is when Horowitz restarted the stalled inquiry into January 6. If so, Horowitz and his large team of investigators have had nearly two years in addition to whatever work was conducted prior to the DOJ’s probe of Team Trump to finalize the long-awaited report. (For context, Horowitz took 20 months to investigate and issue his findings on “Crossfire Hurricane,” the DOJ’s unlawful surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign.)

Instead, Horowitz slow-walked the review to ensure the final product would remain under wraps until after the 2024 election; Horowitz also can’t promise the report will be released before Inauguration Day.

A Risk to J6 Narrative and FBI Director Chris Wray

Confirming the use of FBI informants not only destroys the official J6 narrative—an issue central to Kamala Harris’ campaign, which just produced another J6-themed campaign video—but also potentially exposes FBI Director Christopher Wray to perjury charges.

When asked in March 2021 whether he wished the FBI had “infiltrated” so-called militias such as the Proud Boys, Wray intentionally misled the Senate Judiciary Committee about the involvement of FBI informants in those groups before and on January 6. “Any time there’s an attack, especially one this horrific that strikes right at the heart of our system of government…you can be darn tootin’ (laughs) that we are focused very hard on how we can get better sources, better information, better analysis so we can make sure that something like January 6 never (pause for dramatic purposes) happens again,” Wray told Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)

Except Wray did have informants in the Proud Boys—and that isn’t a fantasy fabricated by “conspiracy theorists” who believe the government played a key role in provoking the crowd that day. During the 2023 trial of leaders of the Proud Boys, the DOJ admitted (stipulated) that informants indeed “infiltrated” the group. “Between on or around November 3, 2020 and January 6, 202, the FBI maintained at least eight CHSs…who provided reporting that included information on, or regarding, among other matters, the Proud Boys.”

So, why didn’t Wray tell the truth about FBI informants in the Proud Boys and other organizations including the Oath Keepers? Why didn’t Wray explain that the sources did provide intelligence to the bureau and nothing suggested a violent attack was in the works?

Wray’s dodginess on the matter has since morphed into indignation and defiance. During two testy exchanges with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), Wray refused to respond to questions about the possibility that FBI informants “dressed like Trump supporters” were stationed inside the building prior to the first interior breach at 2:12 p.m. that day. But rather than answer—or offer any confirmation in court documents and media reports—Wray resorted to his well-worn defense of the bureau. “If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and/or agents, the answer is emphatically no,” Wray told Higgins last year.

But that is only part of the question, and Wray knows it. He also is fully cognizant that the FBI’s evaporating credibility will be permanently torched in the wake of disclosures about the extensive use of informants in what Wray has branded an act of domestic terror.

Now What?

Which brings us back to Garland and Horowitz—and Republicans in Congress.

It’s too late for Republicans to do much more than publicly demand on a daily basis that Garland release the report even though he testified during a June 2024 hearing that the ultimate decision would be in Horowitz’s hands. Accordingly, Republicans also should put Horowitz on the hot seat.

In an October 2 letter to the DOJ, several GOP members of the House Weaponization committee including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) warned Garland that he would be held accountable if “you or any of your subordinates, associates, deputies, or agents…act to interfere with the release of the report.”

A paper trail undoubtedly exists between Garland and Horowitz; correspondence likely exists between both offices and the special counsel—and perhaps extends all the way to the Biden White House and the Harris campaign. If Republicans want to stop this nearly decade-old practice of the DOJ corrupting national elections against members of their own party, GOP leaders must make good on this latest promise.