‘Merrick Garland shivering under his desk’: Former officials slam DOJ for lack of action on ‘criminal’ Trump

Several former U.S. government officials are expressing concern and outrage over what they see as the Dept. of Justice and the Biden administration's lack of action to protect the fundamentals of American democracy, including the lack of prosecution of the former president, Donald Trump, and those who supported and engaged in the planning of the January 6 insurrection.

Former Clinton White House press secretary Joe Lockhart on Monday pointed to Donald Trump's apparent admission Sunday night that he intentionally obstructed justice by firing then-FBI Director Jim Comey. Lockhart, now a CNN political analyst, lamented the Dept. of Justice having "no interest in bringing [Trump] to justice."

"Why should anyone have confidence in our system of Justice where lawyers lie to get on SCOTUS and criminals walk free," he asked.

Lockhart also cites Monday's bombshell Politico story that reveals a former Trump "high-level National Security Council and Pentagon" official is "slaming" the Pentagon's inspector general for what he calls an error-riddled report that protects a top Army official who argued against sending the National Guard to the Capitol on Jan. 6, delaying the insurrection response for hours."

Separately, former U.S. Office of Government Ethics director Walter Shaub also went on the attack Monday morning.

"There’s a country where a deposed leader tried to overthrow the government, with help from top military leaders, and his allies have spent the last year rigging the next election," Shaub said, apparently referring to Trump and the Politico report Lockhart had pointed to. "None has been held accountable. But that country is hosting a democracy and anti-corruption summit."

President Joe Biden on Thursday and Friday is hosting a "virtual Summit for Democracy, bringing together over 100 participants, representing governments, civil society and private sector leaders," according to the White House.

"The government of that country," Shaub continued, "is excluding domestic watchdog groups from the summit and its preparations — to keep the focus on foreign corruption and off the lack of accountability for the corruption of the last administration and the current one’s refusal to support reforms."

On Sunday Shaub accused members of Congress and their staffs of living "in a universe where it’s 1991" while in the real world, he posited, it's more like Germany before Hitler took power:

And commenting on the news former Trump Justice official Jeffrey Clark will plead the fifth to the January 6 Committee Shaub effectively accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of cowardice: