A senior member of the January 6 Select Committee said Friday that he would be “really surprised” if Attorney General Merrick Garland does not respond to the panel’s criminal referrals accusing former President Donald Trump of his conduct in connection with the attack on the US Capitol . .
“I think it’s very important that we establish that it’s not just foot soldiers, but kingpins who are being prosecuted,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who announced criminal referrals against Trump and others for possible violations of four federal statutes at the committee’s last hearing. “And it’s just wrong to send hundreds of foot soldiers to prison and leave the very obvious kingpins without prosecution.”
Speaking on the latest episode of Yahoo News’ “Skullduggery” podcast, Raskin added that Trump “conspired to defraud the government [and] American people. He traded an honest election for a deeply corrupt and fraudulent election with fake voters. … And he helped and helped and gave help and comfort to rebels in several points. … I am very serious about him facing the consequences and paying for the cost of his actions.”
So seriously, Raskin said, that Trump could spend “the remaining days of his misanthropic life behind bars, probably with Secret Service agents. … I mean, would [the Secret Service agents] stand outside the bars or would they be inside the bars? Who knows?”
Garland recently appointed a special counsel, Jack Smith, to oversee investigations into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack, as well as his handling of classified documents he took from the White House, although the attorney general remains the ultimate decision maker on whether to press charges. While there are clear signs that the Justice Department is stepping up its investigations in recent weeks, including subpoenaing Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to testify about his Jan. 2, 2021 phone call with Trump, most legal experts say it is still far away. from clear whether the department will end up charging Trump for the events of Jan. 6 — especially given that the panel never found direct evidence that Trump personally planned or directed the violent attacks on police officers at the Capitol that day.
And at least one of the committee’s citations — for inciting and aiding and abetting a riot, a rarely used charge — remains controversial among civil rights activists. Asked if he was at all uneasy about recommending such a charge that could be used against left-wing protesters in the future, Raskin, a former constitutional law professor, replied, “Not for a second.”
“I mean, if Antifa — which of course was completely absent and invisible on January 6 — decided to bring 40,000 or 50,000 people to Washington and then proceeded to beat the hell out of our police officers and hit them in the face with Confederate flags and stick them with sharpened Trump flags, I would by all means say that if anyone instigated that, they should be prosecuted for it.”
