Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is convinced that the Justice Department now has enough evidence to indict failed, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump for at least three felonies.
Gonzales, who served as AG for George W. Bush, was a guest on CNN Thursday afternoon, was asked about a speech given by Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), who serves as vice chair of the January 6 House Select Committee in which she said:
“The reality we face today as Republicans, as we think about the choice in front of us, we have to choose, because Republicans cannot be loyal to both Donald Trump and to the Constitution at this moment.”
That led host Jake Tapper to inquire of Gonzales:
“Do you agree? Do you see it that way?”
“I think that that is a very accurate statement, quite frankly,” Gonzales replied, adding:
“I believe that the Department (of Justice) is going to move forward with a more serious investigation now that this new information and there may be some indictments.”
Tapper followed up by asking:
“Have you seen evidence or at least possible evidence that leads you to wonder whether Donald Trump committed a crime? And if so, which crime?”
Gonzales then laid out the three crimes he believes Trump could potentially be indicted for:
“Yeah, I think that if you can tie him — he knew about — he knew the crowd was dangerous, he encouraged the crowd to go to the Capitol and he knew the crowd was armed, and he knew that the purpose of the — what was going on in Congress, which was to certify the Electoral College count, and yeah, I think one might make the argument that there is certainly the beginnings of a case full of seditious conspiracy, obstruction of Congress. So there are some things there that I think the attorney general will look at, along with witness tampering.
Seditious conspiracy, obstruction of Congress, and witness tampering. The penalty for those crimes is 20 years, five years, and 20 years, meaning if Trump got the maximum, he’d be looking at a sentence of 45 years in federal prison. Considering what he tried to do, that seems like a just punishment.
