This week’s political news was dominated by former Congressman Matt Gaetz withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general to replace the worst AG in US history, the lawless Merrick Garland. While Gaetz could have been a change agent well-suited to clean house from top to bottom at the DOJ, as Gaetz said as he withdrew his name from consideration, his confirmation battle would have been a needless distraction from the Trump 47 agenda. We agree.

The horse-trading that occurs when a new administration takes charge is substantial. Names are floated with confirmations far from guaranteed. We believe that Trump knew all along that a Gaetz confirmation was a long shot, that he put his name forward as much to get Democrats, liberals, progressives, and the dying legacy media’s heads to explode as it was for the revenge or retribution of the past nine years.

Having Gaetz step back from consideration might have been negotiated to get the remaining people confirmed. While the far left was clearly playing checkers, Trump is playing 4D chess.

It’s likely that new nominee Pam Bondi was the intended person all along given how quickly her name was elevated mere hours after Gaetz’s departure. This has many Democrats and just about all of the legacy media hyperventilating.

(If you have your thoughts, leave them in the comments section below or on the American Greatness Facebook or X/Twitter feeds.)

There is much unfinished business at the DOJ given what’s happened during the Biden-Harris-Garland stewardship of the agency for almost four years. There are public figures who deserve new scrutiny and prosecution for their roles over the last eight years. Three immediately come to mind. Obviously, there’s former DNI chief James Clapper and former CIA chief John Brennan, both of whom got free passes for having perjured themselves during their congressional testimony.

Another is the now-disgraced Liz Cheney, who was trotted out by the failed Harris-Walz candidacy as a paragon of Republican virtue. Who on the Harris-Walz team thought this was a good idea after having vilified the Cheneys, Dick and Liz, as unrepentant warmongers for the last quarter of a century? Their “endorsement” of the Harris-Walz ticket was one of many contributing factors to the ticket’s overwhelming defeat.

Liz Cheney has a lot to answer for beyond her repudiation last year by her constituents in Wyoming, where, as a sitting Congresswoman, she was trounced by more than 30 points. She was a willing, enthusiastic “Republican” participant in Benny Thompson’s sham J6 House Committee hearings, which afterward has been credibly accused of destroying important documents. To paraphrase lawyer and Trump ally Mike Davis of the Article 3 Project (A3P), we need to haul Cheney’s “fat ass” before Congressional committees and get her on the record to explain what happened to those documents or, alternatively, exercise her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination. That’s a win-win situation that hopefully will lead to her prosecution.

Now based on new reporting from John Solomon and Steven Richards on the Just the News website, we have a fourth person to add to this rogues’ gallery, US Capitol Police officer, Michael Byrd. No longer shielded by Congressional Democrats and Garland’s tainted DOJ, it’s finally time for Byrd to be held accountable for the only death that occurred on J6, that of Ashli Babbitt.

This so-called “hero” of J6 shot and killed an unarmed young woman who was exercising her First Amendment right to free speech on that fateful day. That she may have been guilty of trespassing was no reason for the 6-foot-2-inch Byrd to kill her in cold blood without any legal consequences. Byrd was absolutely reckless, receiving no punishment and, in fact, was subsequently promoted to captain for this senseless killing.

Babbitt’s family and her memory deserve better, much better.

And it’s not that this tragic event could not have been predicted. As Just the News’ reporting states, Byrd had a long record of questionable actions prior to J6. Here’s a list of a few:

Now with a new administration and a new AG about to take power, Babbitt’s memory and her family deserve that Byrd be held accountable for causing Babbitt’s needless death; at a minimum, charges of manslaughter are warranted, possibly second-degree murder.

This is not retribution; this is justice for Ashli Babbitt.

Let’s hope that Trump’s DOJ finally holds Byrd accountable given his less-than-checkered service record detailed here, not awarded an undeserved promotion two years later for Babbitt’s cold-blooded killing.

Remember, all of you J6 truthers, no one other than Babbitt died on J6, and not a single police officer. One police officer, Brian Sicknick, died two days later due to natural causes, a stroke. Period. That’s one undeniable truth of J6.

The other truth of J6 is the unprecedented detention of demonstrators arrested on that day, without any due process or access to legal representation. Merrick Garland’s DOJ was not interested in the rule of law; they were only interested in demonstrating raw power and their willingness to incarcerate or even kill those who defied them, regardless of the actual threat.

With Matt Gaetz out, and Pam Bondi now the nominee for attorney general, if confirmed she will be tasked with bringing accountability back to those in power. Michael Byrd’s killing of Ashley Babbitt is an open-and-shut case. Garland’s persecution of J6 demonstrators was clearly unlawful and he must answer for it. And intelligence community chiefs abusing their positions and lying about it to Congress needs to be dealt with decisively and lawfully.

Call it retribution, or revenge, or payback if you must. It is the only path to restoring the confidence of the public in our governmental institutions. If it is even possible at this point.