Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House select committee looking into the attack on the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, stated on Sunday that he thinks the former president’s conduct on that day warrants an investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ), The Hill reported.
A president would become above the law if the department adopted the stance that a former president cannot be the subject of an investigation or indictment. That is a very risky notion, and the founders would never have supported it, Schiff told Face the Nation.
When moderator Margaret Brennan brought up the idea of the political trade-offs around a potential prosecution of a former president, Schiff said that it would be worse to not hold Trump accountable for the January 6 riot at all.
Trump’s efforts to have the results of the 2020 elections nullified have been revealed by the most recent committee hearings, according to Schiff, who also noted that Trump made no attempts to put an end to the uprising on that particular day.
Schiff said it’s definitely not a decision that should be made lightly. Nevertheless, the representative said he agrees with the vice chair that protecting a former president from prosecution for wrongdoing is riskier than anything else. In his opinion, Schiff added, delaying an investigation or a prosecution because of someone’s position in government or their political clout or fan base is far more dangerous for the Constitution than following the evidence wherever it points, including to prosecution.
“He wouldn’t lift a finger as he watched on TV police officers being beaten and gouged and sprayed with chemicals in the most supreme dereliction of duty ever,” Schiff said, as quoted by The Hill. “But also, those multiple lines of effort, I think, invoke various criminal laws and his conduct ought to be the subject of investigation.”
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