No Virginia, Garland couldn't charge Trump earlier with phony charges. There are folks out there who think that Garland should have come forward earlier with charges against Trump.
There's a process that even a first-year law student knows about (I guess the ten-year student missed) it's called building a case based on the evidence.
Some folks think that all you need is someone screaming he's guilty. Forget about the facts.
Folks forgot that Trump had executive immunity. The Supreme Court verified that. So Garland let Smith go out and make up stuff and ignore the laws that were already on the books.