Garland took too long to get justice against Trump underway

Kimberly Atkins Stohr’s column “Don’t Blame Garland and Smith for Trump’s Failed Prosecution” misses the mark (Opinion, Nov. 28). She says it’s unlikely “we would be in a different place” if Attorney General Merrick Garland had appointed special counsel Jack Smith well before November 2022. I disagree. In February 2021, after Republican Senator Mitch McConnell declined to vote for impeachment because Donald Trump was no longer president, he effectively called for a criminal investigation into Trump. The minority leader said: “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We litigate civil suits. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either.”

If Smith had been appointed then, several things would be likely. First, the prosecution would have appeared more legitimate because of the events of January 6, 2021. It would have been the prosecution of a widely condemned former president, not an up-and-coming candidate. Second, if the investigation had begun, it could well have been completed long before Trump became a candidate.