Psaki: AG Garland Is a ‘Quiet Storm’ Building January 6 Case with ‘Complete Badass’ Special Counsel

MSNBC political commentator and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday on “Morning Joe” that Attorney General Merrick Garland was a “quiet storm” building January 6 cases with “complete badass” special counsel Jack Smith.

Partial transcript as follows:

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 6 Committee provides and begin to turn it into actual legal cases. You know, Kevin McCarthy and the House 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.

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.

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