Via the Daily Caller, skip to 3:20 to see how seriously Jay Nixon takes grand juries. And it’s not just a “vigorous” state prosecution that he wants: He’s nudging Holder here to bring federal charges against Wilson, with the FBI still in the field conducting its investigation. Will Holder comply? This WaPo report is thin on direct quotes but strongly implies that he and Obama are promising black leaders they’ll take action:

The White House is working behind the scenes to assure leading civil rights groups that the administration is determined to see justice achieved in the Michael Brown shooting as President Obama seeks to preserve his support in the black community with his handling of the racially charged case.

Tanya Clay House, public policy director for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, said she came away from the White House telephone briefing convinced that the administration is committed to pursuing answers in the Brown case…

Holder and Jarrett were joined on the calls by Molly Moran, acting director of the Justice Department’s civil rights division. They said that FBI agents had conducted more than 200 interviews and personnel from the federal civil rights division and the office of ­community-oriented policing also are in Ferguson.

“Determined to see justice achieved” could mean any outcome, ranging from prosecution and conviction of a guilty man to refusing to indict someone against whom there’s insufficient evidence, but civil-rights groups obviously have a particular outcome in mind here and the White House knows it. They’re all but promising to have the U.S. Attorney try Wilson. Or, if the evidence against Wilson completely falls apart somehow and Holder’s left in a tough political spot, he could decide to investigate the Ferguson PD for its practices more broadly, not just vis-a-vis Michael Brown. This NYT report claims that he’s weighing that right now, in fact, inspired in part by a recent horrific-if-true account in the Daily Beast of what the cops there allegedly did to a man in 2009. He says they beat him — and then charged him for property damage when he bled on their uniforms. A sweeping inquiry into police brutality and racial profiling generally by the DOJ might help keep the peace even if Wilson walks.

Two clips for you below, the first of Nixon and the second via the Corner of Megyn Kelly tearing him to shreds for jumping out ahead of the evidence.