Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice need to discard the so-called “60-Day Rule” that supposedly would forbid bringing potential criminal charges against former President Donald Trump within 60-days of the upcoming midterms.
To start with, Garland and the DOJ need to tell the American public that no such rule exists. That’s right – the rule doesn’t exist. It’s the DOJ’s equivalent of an urban myth. No actual law or written policy at the DOJ mentions anything about doing anything within 60-days of anything vis a vis criminal charges, involving elections.
This is no secret. Commentators including Just Security, Lawfare, Jeffrey Toobin and the DOJ Office of Inspector General have all confirmed the absence of any such written rule and agreed that it’s actually more like an informal policy of prosecutorial best practices that includes avoiding actions such as “public indictments or other overt disclosures that could affect [elections].”