With each day, we get more evidence and information that points directly to former President Donald Trump’s complicity in the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
But a larger question remains: Will Trump be referred for criminal charges by the Jan. 6 committee, and if so, what will the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland do with such a referral?
Former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill (D), who worked for years as a prosecutor before she ran for office, laid out a road map for Garland and the DOJ when it comes to indicting Trump, explaining what she thinks the AG should do regarding the ex-president.
During an appearance on MSNBC Monday, McCaskill told host Nicolle Wallace that federal prosecutors should walk a grand jury through Trump’s inaction for over three hours as he watched the rioting take place at the Capitol:
“We can go through and we can put the images at a specific time. And we can then fill in the text messages, the phone calls that were flooding the White House saying, get him to call them off. Now, what was he watching on TV at those moments? He was watching windows being broken. He was watching police officers being stabbed with flag poles. He was watching people hang from the balcony in the Senate. He was watching people carry around government property proudly like trophies in the capital. And, frankly, he was watching a confrontation at the door of the House where someone was killed.”
McCaskill added:
“Give me those facts. Give me those timelines, and give me a jury. I’m just telling you, any responsible leader would want to end the violence, not provoke it. That’s what he did that day, and that’s what this committee is going to layout. And that’s where Merrick Garland is either going to rise to the occasion or go down in infamy as one of the worst attorney generals in this country’s history.”
The case against Donald Trump, members of his administration, and some members of Congress could not possibly be more damning. If AG Garland doesn’t pursue criminal charges against each and every person who played a role in the Capitol insurrection, we can expect it to happen again.
