We at this site have a great deal of respect for Marcy Wheeler, who blogs/posts under the monicker “Empty Wheel” on Twitter and the net. Wheeler is an independent journalist who may or may not have experience in national security (Some of those folks can be awfully vague about their past). Today she made a good point, even if we disagree with her optimism and conclusions. We feel pretty good about the fact that Lawrence Tribe is on our side in all this.

Wheeler wants to address those of us who are frustrated with the lack of progress made by the federal government on anything having to do with January 6th. The feds have done a fantastic job on rounding up the worst of the worst in the crowd, but we’ve yet to see anyone who may have been involved at the next level pay a price, or even heard about a search warrant being issued.

Wheeler reminds us that arrests were made in the Mueller/Russian investigation before we even knew of the arrest and argues that it arrests could have already been made in this matter:

The Coffee Boy was arrested 4 days short of the 1 year opening of the Russian investigation–the equivalent of … today.

It did not become public that he had been arrested until he pled guilty two months later.

— emptywheel (Check, please) (@emptywheel) January 2, 2022

We are well aware of the fact that the Mueller investigation was not lightning fast. More importantly, though, Mueller wasn’t investigating something that played out right before our eyes, right after hearing Trump say something about “you better fight like hell or you won’t have a country left…” (Paraphrased.) In other words, Wheeler is comparing apples to oranges.

In September, a judge ordered Special Master to conduct a privilege review of Rudy's phones from 1/1/18 (which is when Rudy first started helping Trump obstruct justice) thru seizure, so 4/28/21 (meaning it would include anything Rudy did to help the coup)https://t.co/FtlwTb9EQQ

— emptywheel (Check, please) (@emptywheel) January 2, 2022

Might we point out that Rudy committed a crime almost live on television and has not been arrested? (Maybe DOJ can arrest a “coffee boy” and keep it secret, Giuliani would be infinitely more difficult).

We find ourselves more in Lawrence Tribe’s camp, and – we might point out, Adam Schiff said that he doesn’t know of anything happening, either. One would think he would know. Admittedly, he could be purposefully giving out disinformation but U.S. politicians almost never ever ever give out disinformation to the U.S. press.

I had a good conversation with @chrislhayes about the urgent need for DOJ to conduct a thorough criminal investigation of ALL the leaders of the coup plot and the insurrection, including Trump, and NOT wait for the Jan 6 committee to finish its work. That’d be too late: https://t.co/fi9v3bY4ae

— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) December 24, 2021

Exactly.

Rule 1-7.400(C), DOJ Justice Manual:
          “When the community needs to be reassured that the appropriate law enforcement agency is investigating a matter . . . confirmation of an ongoing investigation may be necessary, subject to [the AG’s] approval.” — h/t Robert Hubbell.

— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) December 29, 2021

If there was ever an instance where the public deserved to know whether the federal government was investigating the entirety of the crime, this is it. Marcy doesn’t acknowledge how much of the “investigation” has already been done by reporters and authors, how much many of us already know, which also directly contrasts to the Mueller investigation.

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[email protected] and Substack: Predictions for 2022

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