Bill Maher Bashes Merrick Garland For Waiting 2 Years To Appoint Trump Special Counsel

Bill Maher spent a portion of Friday night’s episode of HBO‘s Real Time by bashing Attorney General Merrick Garland for waiting 2 years to hand the DOJ’s probe of former President Trump over to a special counsel.

Garland announced on Friday that he appointed former Justice Department official Jack Smith to serve as special counsel on the case, which is looking into Trump’s actions following the 2020 presidential election leading up to the events of January 6. The DOJ is also investigating his handling of classified materials that were seized by federal agents at Mar-a-Lago.

The attorney general cited recent developments in the investigations as well as Trump’s announcement that he will be running for president in 2024 as reasons for his decision.

Kicking off the panel discussion on his 20th season finale, Maher addressed the “breaking news.”

“I guess he did this on a Friday because maybe he was afraid? I don’t know,” Maher speculated. “He spent two years thinking about whether he should appoint a special counsel or what he should do about Donald Trump being a criminal.”

“And now he has made up his mind. He’s going to give it to somebody else to do,” Maher chuckled before mentioning the two probes, one being “that little thing” Trump did by trying to overturn the 2020 election and the other being putting classified documents “in the shed next to the croquet equipment.”

After highlighting Special Counsel Smith’s resume, Maher insisted “it doesn’t matter who, it doesn’t matter how, it doesn’t matter when, the right is just gonna say it’s political.”

CNN anchor Laura Coates said she is on board with the special counsel appointment, noting the major distrust of institutions and “if you can do one thing to undercut the argument that this is all politics, why not try?”

“You gotta,” Maher agreed. “He can’t let a guy get away with it! That’s a bigger precedent! I know there’s some bad sides of doing it.”

Maher later complained about how the DOJ didn’t press charges against former President Trump “right after” the events of January 6.

“I’ve kept saying on this show like ‘What the f— is going on?’ If only we had some sort of department of justice who could do something, some sort of justice department,” Maher quipped.

Maher and Real Time are currently on winter break and will return on January 20.