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| Photo Credit: AP. |
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the indictment of former President Donald Trump over the January 6 2021 Capitol Hill riot could be on the table.
Garland’s
comment is coming as the Justice Department continues to pursue the prosecution
of all those involved in the insurrection at Congress.
Mr. Garland
who did not mention the former president by name said the department will
continue to pursue charges against anyone who was part of the riot or infringed
on the peaceful transfer of power, The Washington Times reports.
“We intend
to hold everyone, anyone who was criminally responsible for the events
surrounding Jan. 6, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of
power from one administration to another, accountable. That’s what we do. We
don’t pay any attention to other issues with respect to that,” Mr. Garland told
Lester Holt of NBC News in a Tuesday interview, according to The Washington
Times.
Mr. Garland
was responding to a question about the possible indictment of a former
president or presidential candidate, following possible interest by Mr. Trump
to run for the 2024 presidential elections.
Asked more
specifically about Mr. Trump potentially becoming a presidential candidate, Mr.
Garland repeated that “we will hold accountable anyone who was criminally
responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer, legitimate, lawful
transfer of power from one administration to the next.”
Garland
indicated that the investigation into the roots of the riot is the “most
wide-ranging investigation” in the Justice Department’s history.
Garland also
praised the Democratic led January 6 panel investigating the Capitol riot by Trump
supporters.
“It is
inevitable that there will be things that they find before we have found them.
And it’s inevitable that there will be things we find that they haven’t found.
That’s what happens when you have two wide ranging investigations going on at
the same time,” Mr. Garland said, according to The Washington Times.
How did we get here?
After his
January 6 rally, Mr. Trump had ordered his supporters to go to the Capitol to
make their voices heard which resulted in a deadly siege.
Trump and
his allies had filed dozens of lawsuits challenging the election victory in a
number of states on grounds that there was widespread voter fraud but those
lawsuits soon failed as several courts struck out the suits.
Frustrated
that he was not successfully at upturning the election results in court, Trump
tweeted the rally invitation, a pivotal moment, the committee said, according
to The Associated Press. The far-right Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and others
answered the call and a number of them came to Washington with guns ready to
take the battle to the field.
The
committee sought to establish whether the extremist groups including the Proud
Boys, Oath Keepers and QAnon adherents who took part in the Trump rally before,
coordinated with White House allies for January 6.
What is Trump saying about the January 6 panel
Mr. Trump
has dismissed the January 6 panel as a politically motivated “witch-hunt”
targeted at preventing him from seeking re-election.
Speaking at the
America First Policy Institute, Mr. Trump said “they want to damage you in any
form, but they really want to damage me, so that I can no longer go back to
work for you,” Mr. Trump said of his 2024 ambitions. “I don’t think that’s
going to happen.”
Trump blamed
what he called the “corrupt establishment” for his ordeal.