Newsday: Garland need not sweat the bar set by Barr

Newsday: Garland need not sweat the bar set by Barr

"Mr. Berman should've immediately disclosed what he knew to the public, and certainly should have provided all of these details during his 2020 congressional testimony," said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. "It is not acceptable for public officials to hoard valuable information — about possible illegality — in order to cash in on it, when their first obligation must be to the people they're sworn to serve."

Attorney General Merrick Garland has an elementary public-relations approach to investigating the actions of private citizen Donald Trump and associates: Be professionally restrained, promise little, leak nothing, let court filings speak, and ignore the suspense and speculation.

The standard narrative surrounding President Joe Biden’s Justice Department plays up how sensitive it is to probe the doings of an ex-president — whether regarding improper possession of classified documents or unheard-of attempts to retroactively rig the last election.

The flip side is that Garland & Co. would have to try very hard not to come out of this looking better than their departmental predecessors.

Eyewitness accounts keep surfacing, even at this late date, about Trump’s ham-handed efforts in office to use the U.S. Justice Department to help friends, target foes, and fend off troubles of his own.

This week, a loyally Republican lawyer, ex-U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, describes those dubious priorities in his widely-publicized book titled “Holding the Line.” …

Berman says his office was prodded by higher-ups to go after John Kerry, the former secretary of state. Trump canceled the nuclear deal Kerry helped negotiate with Iran. Around that time, according to Berman, Trump made his legal fatwa against Kerry clear via nasty insinuations on Twitter. Berman says he reviewed the matter, and found no case. After a year, the Kerry inquiry was sent instead to a Maryland prosecutor who reached the same conclusion, Berman says. …

Other backlash has followed against Berman’s after-the-fact whistle-blowing.

“Mr. Berman should’ve immediately disclosed what he knew to the public, and certainly should have provided all of these details during his 2020 congressional testimony,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY. “It is not acceptable for public officials to hoard valuable information — about possible illegality — in order to cash in on it, when their first obligation must be to the people they’re sworn to serve.”