US Republican Representative Liz Cheney speaks through the third listening to of the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the US Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 16, 2022.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — Rep. Liz Cheney urged the Justice Department on Thursday to prosecute Donald Trump if it finds proof that the previous president dedicated crimes in reference to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
Not doing so would name into query whether or not America is a nation of legal guidelines, the Wyoming Republican mentioned in an interview with CNN’s Kasie Hunt.
Cheney mentioned that she believes the Justice Department will observe the info, however “they have to make decisions about prosecution. Understanding what it means, if the facts and the evidence are there, and they decide not to prosecute — how do we then call ourselves a nation of laws?”
A number one voice on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 assaults, Cheney mentioned she believes Trump is “guilty of the most serious dereliction of duty of any president in our nation’s history.”
Cheney cited a federal district courtroom choose in California, who mentioned in March that Trump and conservative legal professional John Eastman seemingly dedicated crimes in trying to overturn the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election and hold Trump in workplace after voters had elected now-President Joe Biden.
But the query of whether or not Trump and his closest allies ought to face prosecution for his or her monthslong effort to subvert the 2020 election is one which has roiled the anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party.
On one facet are voices similar to Cheney’s, who insist that the info have to be adopted even when prosecuting Trump has the unintended consequence of creating the previous president a political martyr and an much more potent power in American politics.
On the opposite facet is a extra cautious and altogether quieter group of Republicans, who’re involved that the authorized hurdles to proving Trump dedicated any critical crime are too excessive to make it worthwhile. Prosecuting a former president of the United States with no assured conviction, they argue, would danger handing Trump an infinite political and ethical victory, and open the door to future, extra politically motivated prosecutions of former presidents.
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