Thread by @ZoeTillman

AG Merrick Garland will be speaking soon about the Jan. 6 anniversary. DOJ has released this excerpt in advance: "The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law..." (full quote attached)

Garland is set to speak at 2:45pm, it'll be streamed line here: justice.gov/live

AG Garland is up, reminder that it's being streamed here: justice.gov/live

Garland recounts the violence against police on Jan. 6, and the mob's temporary success in "interfering with a fundamental element of American democracy."

"Those involved must be held accountable, and there is no higher priority for us at the Department of Justice."

Garland says the Jan. 6 investigation is "one of the largest, most complex, and most resource intensive investigations in our history"
- 5,000+ subpoenas + search warrants
- ~2,000 devices seized
- 20K+ hours video
- 15 TB data
- 300K+ citizen tips

Garland on misdemeanor plea deals: they reflect facts of the case and a defendant's acceptance of responsibility, and "help conserve both judicial and prosecutorial resources, so that attention can properly focus on the more serious perpetrators"

Garland: We know you want to know how long this will go and what we'll do next. "Our answer is ... the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation: as long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done — consistent with the facts and the law."

Garland: "To ensure that all those criminally responsible are held accountable, we must collect the evidence. We follow the physical evidence. We follow the digital evidence. We follow the money. But most important, we follow the facts — not an agenda or an assumption."

Garland on DOJ norms, a big theme of his in the post-Trump era: "...there cannot be different rules depending on one’s political party or affiliation. There cannot be different rules for friends and foes. And there cannot be different rules for the powerful and the powerless."

Garland: "...in a democracy, people must not employ violence or unlawful threats of violence to affect that outcome. Citizens must not be intimidated from exercising their constitutional rights to free expression and association by such unlawful conduct."

Garland quotes the late justice Antonin Scalia, including the case name, in explaining that threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment (tell me your AG is a former DC Circuit judge without telling me your AG is a former DC Circuit judge)

Garland shifts to talking about DOJ's commitment to enforcing voting rights, laments the Supreme Court's narrowing of federal voting rights protections in the Shelby County decision in 2013, calls on Congress to take action

Garland: "Each of us — you and I — came to work here because we are committed to the Rule of Law and to seeking equal justice under law. We came to work here because we are committed to ensuring the civil rights and civil liberties of our people."

Garland concludes with a thank you to DOJ employees, says he hopes to see more of them in person, soon

A few thoughts: Garland's speech was light on details, but that's what we'd expect from someone in his position talking about an ongoing investigation. Recall DOJ briefly landed in hot water with judges when the former DC acting US atty went on TV to talk about the investigation

The fact that Garland addressed some of the public criticism of the direction of charges/plea deals to date, and confirmed that they're still plugging away, exploring options to build up cases, and have no plans to wind down, was significant on its own as a type of status update

Garland talked about why they've charged a lot of cases as misdemeanors and started with those plea deals, which means lighter sentences. There are still a lot of misdemeanor pleas/sentencings to come, if my Jan-March calendar is a guide — will we see more felony deals? TBD