Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson said Friday on “MSNBC Reports” that the House Select Committee investigating January 6 was making the case to the Department of Justice that former President Donald Trump led a “seditious conspiracy.”
Johnson said, “What I heard last night from that hearing, and here I’m in my role as a former federal prosecutor, which I was over 30 years ago, the committee is very clearly making the case for the Department of Justice of a criminal act by none other than Donald Trump. The committee chair now uses the words attempted coup, attempts to overthrow the government in connection with Donald Trump.”
He added, “It is also notable that Proud Boys have been indicted as part of a seditious conspiracy. It sounds as if the committee is making the case that Donald Trump joined in that seditious conspiracy. There is also the charge of insurrection, acts of violence against the U.S. government, as well as those who give aid and comfort thereto. In my judgment, this was the very definition of an insurrection. And then lastly, what I thought was notable was the use of the word fraud last night. Wire fraud, brought by wire television radio, the very conventional federal prosecutors’ tool for prosecution. It seems as though the committee is now also trying to make the case that Trump and the people around him were engaging in some form of fraud in inducing people to commit these acts of violence on the basis of something that they knew was a lie.”
Anchor Katy Tur asked, “How difficult is it for any attorney general to potentially indict a former president of another party?”
Johnson said, “Well, it is unparalleled, unprecedented. But from everything I know, from what I’ve seen from public sourcing and from last night, I think that we are within the realm of what an aggressive prosecutor would take on. I think that there will be a lot more evidence that comes out through these committee hearings, and the Department of Justice at that point will have to make some really difficult decisions.”
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