They may be saving federal charges for when something really earth-shattering happens and they need to divert attention back to Zimmermann, who is not popular.
If I recall correctly, public opinion polls at the time were strongly against filing civil rights charges, and going for a civil rights trial of Zimmerman. Politically, isn’t this risky for the president to go there???
Of course, it would fire up the liberal base who pushed this case in the first place, but I think it’s politically risky for Obama to get Eric Holder to do this.
Spot on.
I'll bet there's a shelf in the West Wing labeled "Look, a squirrel!", with attention diverters ready to use.
Unfortunately for them, the one on the top of the stack after the Shinseki resignation was named "Bergdahl".