Rachel Maddow reveals Merrick Garland memo to DOJ on ‘election year sensitivities’

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow revealed on Monday a Justice Department memo reaffirming a Trump-era order placing restrictions on investigations into candidates in an election year.

The “Election Year Sensitivities” memo to staff, signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland and dated May 25, was disclosed amid a heated debate over whether federal prosecutors will seek charges against former President Donald Trump in relation to the Capitol riot and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

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Garland’s document, which Maddow said she does not believe has been disclosed publicly before, talks about the importance of avoiding “partisan politics” in decisions regarding investigations and criminal charges as well as protecting the agency’s reputation for “fairness, neutrality, and non-partisanship.” It also cites a memo from former Attorney General William Barr.

“Department employees must also adhere to the additional requirements issued by the Attorney General on February 5, 2020, governing the opening of criminal and counterintelligence investigations by the Department, including its law enforcement agencies, related to politically sensitive individuals and entities,” the memo states.

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Justice Department for comment. Barr’s memo followed the turbulent 2016 presidential campaign during which then-FBI Director James Comey made public announcements about the investigation into Hillary Clinton, who was the Democratic nominee. Opening investigations into a presidential or vice presidential candidate, or top members of their campaigns, requires written approval of the attorney general, Barr’s memo decreed, according to the New York Times.

“Neither memo prevents an indictment,” national security lawyer Bradley Moss said in a tweet about the Garland and Barr memos.

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Trump has flirted with the idea of another run for the White House in 2024. Trump recently said he has already made up his mind and that it was only a matter of time before an announcement would be made. He previously indicated he would wait until after the midterm elections in November to make such a decision.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of the Jan. 6 committee, lamented the pace of the Justice Department’s Jan. 6 investigation. “If the AG is going to follow the evidence where it leads, then — we’ve already seen evidence leading to the former president,” he said on MSNBC last week, stressing his belief that prosecutors should not “simply wait” to “exhaust all the investigation of those that attacked the Capitol that day, when there were multiple lines of effort to overturn the election.”