WATCH: Jen Psaki Reveals DoJ Source Told Her Merrick Garland is ‘A Quiet Storm’ Building Jan. 6 Case
Former White House Press Secretary and current MSNBC host-in-waiting Jen Psaki dropped a newsworthy hint to those who might think the pressure on former President Donald Trump from the Jan. 6 criminal probe is going to ease.
No sooner had Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the appointment of Jack Smith as Special Counsel — to handle Justice Department probes into Trump’s mishandling of classified information under the Espionage Act and his conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection — than anti-Trump critics began to complain that Garland was punting and letting Trump off the hook.
But on Thursday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Psaki appeared to offer a nugget of hope from within DoJ during a broader discussion of the new House GOP’s efforts to turn the tables when they take over. She revealed to the MJ crew that an official at DoJ told her Garland is a “quiet storm” who is building an expansive case against Trump and the insurrectionists:
DAVID IGNATIUS: The conviction of Stewart Rhodes of Oath Keepers for seditious conspiracy is a big deal. Yeah, obvious that our Attorney General, Merrick Garland, sees it as a significant precedent or basis for further prosecutions of that type. They’re seeing that the courts will accept this very deep description of what happened January 6. And if Merkel decides to keep going with that and move up and take the evidence that the January six committee provides and begin to turn it into actual legal cases. You know, Kevin McCarthy and the House…
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: It’s a parallel universe.
DAVID IGNATIUS: Can hold all the hearings they want. But with the action in the in the litigation and the decisions people will face about whether it, whether to cooperate or whether to face really significant prison time, is, that’s going to be, I think, the issue of the next year. Not not all of this back and…
JEN PSAKI: Yeah. I mean, look, I think you have on one hand, you have the Republican Party on every level the battle for the RNC chair. Whatever Kevin McCarthy’s strategy is, which I don’t think it’s three dimensional chess, I think he doesn’t know, you know, and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s participation in policy committees. There’s an identity crisis playing out here. Who are they for? What are they for? What are they fighting for?
And then on the other hand, to David’s point, you have Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice. And I think he deserves and they deserve some credit here.
I was speaking with a Department of Justice official a couple of weeks ago who described Merrick Garland as a quiet storm, somebody who builds, that is what he is doing. They went big with Stewart Rhodes. There are more seditionists they are going to continue to prosecute. He’s obviously, has Jack Smith in charge, who is a guy who is prosecuting war criminals. This is a complete badass guy who’s doing this, and they are doing serious work here while there’s an identity crisis going on on the other side.
Watch above via MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
