The news just got considerably worse for failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump because the January 6 House Select Committee is now coordinating with the Justice Department and sharing information that could lead to the ex-president being indicted for his role in attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
Bloomberg reports:
The Congressional Jan. 6 committee said it’s working to get the Justice Department access to transcripts of witness interviews, a day after the Capitol riot prosecution of two Proud Boys was delayed due to lack of access.
“The Select Committee is engaged in a cooperative process to address the needs of the Department of Justice,” its spokesman, Tim Mulvey, in a statement Friday. “We are not inclined to share the details of that publicly. We believe accountability is important and won’t be an obstacle to the department’s prosecution.”
This latest development is, as Ken Dilanian of NBC News reported recently, a logical next step as the DOJ decides who will be charged in connection with the Capitol insurrection:
A person familiar with the matter told NBC News there have been conversations inside the Justice Department about the far-reaching implications of pursuing a case against Trump, should it come to that. So far, no public evidence has surfaced that the former president has become a criminal target.
What might those implications be? Nationwide civil unrest, for one:
Filing criminal charges against Trump in connection with his efforts to overturn the election “will very likely spark civil unrest, and maybe even civil war,” said Barbara McQuade, an NBC legal analyst and a former U.S. attorney.
But, she said, “I think not charging is even worse, because not charging means you failed to hold someone criminally accountable who tried to subvert our democracy.”
Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor and currently a lecturer at George Washington University Law School, said there is already enough evidence to charge Trump as part of a larger conspiracy:
“There are a lot of actions that are being laid out that could qualify as conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the election. This was a multifaceted conspiracy that actually went on for a couple of months.”
Also of concern to federal prosecutors is that charging a former president could open all future U.S. heads of state to retaliatory prosecution when he or she leaves office, and that could endanger the overall stability and security of the United States.
Trump isn’t in the clear yet. What remains to be revealed in future public hearings from the Jan. 6 committee could be tipping point that will convince Justice to make Donald Trump a criminal defendant.
