I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, January 7th.

The official January 6th anniversary commemorations are over, but concern for our democracy persists. And so does a debate

that's been breaking out over Attorney General Merrick Garland's approach to criminal investigations

of Trump himself and others in his orbit, who may be legally, criminally responsible,

not just the hundreds of actual rioters who have now been charged.

We'll have Morgan State Professor and Political Commentator Jason Johnson on this question and more in just a minute.

But I want to set this up with a couple of excerpts from a speech that Attorney General Garland gave on Wednesday.

I think it kind of got downplayed and lost a little bit in the news cycle in favor of the more

fiery speech that President Biden gave yesterday. So here's about a minute and a half of the

Attorney General kind of addressing progressives' unhappiness with him that Trump and others at the

top of the January 6th food chain remain uncharged.

The Justice Department remains committed to holding all January 6 perpetrators at any level,

accountable under law, whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault

on our democracy. We will follow the facts wherever they lead.

Because January 6 was an unprecedented attack on the seat of our democracy, we understand that there is broad public interest

in our investigation. We understand that there are questions about how long the investigation

will take and about what exactly we are doing. Our answer is, and will continue to be,

the same answer we would give with respect to any ongoing investigation.

As long as it takes and whatever it takes for justice to be done, consistent with the facts and the law.

I understand that this may not be the answer some are looking for, but we will and we must

speak through our work.

Anything else jeopardizes the viability of our investigations and the civil liberties of our

...