DOJ ‘Seriously Considering’ Charges Against Donald Trump: Legal Analyst

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Mike Pence being subpoenaed as part of the investigation on January 6 shows that the Department of Justice is “seriously considering” bringing criminal charges against Donald Trump, a legal expert told Newsweek.

The former vice president has been subpoenaed to testify and provide documents by special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the investigation into Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the events leading up to the chaos at the Capitol. .

Pence is seen as a key witness in the investigation, given his closeness to Trump. The former president also repeatedly and falsely claimed that Pence could prevent Joe Biden from being declared the winner of the 2020 election by denying electoral votes during Pence’s purely ceremonial role as presiding officer of the Senate.

Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former US attorney, said subpoenaing Pence to testify under oath was an important step for prosecutors, while also setting up another showdown regarding executive privilege.

Above, Donald Trump and Mike Pence view the daily briefing for COVID-19 in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on April 2, 2020. Pence’s subpoena as part of the January 6 investigation shows that the DOJ “is seriously considering” bringing charges against Trump, a legal analyst told Newsweek. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

“This indicates that the DOJ is seriously considering criminal charges against Trump for January 6,” McQuade told Newsweek. are unlikely to result in charges.

“It also suggests that charges are imminent. Prosecutors typically question key witnesses at the end of an investigation after they know as much as they can about the facts.”

Trump’s lawyers have already indicated they will try to prevent Pence from complying with the subpoena while citing executive privilege—which prevents communications between the president and the executive branch from becoming public.

However, for a former president to assert executive privilege, the current president must also allow it.

Biden has already declined to invoke executive privilege after several Trump allies, including former White House adviser Steve Bannon and ex-White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, refused to comply with subpoenas issued to them by the House Select Committee investigating the attack on January 6. .

In January 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s bid to use executive privilege to block the January 6 House committee from gaining access to his White House records as part of their investigation.

“Biden will lose, I’m sure, and if it goes to court, I think Trump will lose based on the earlier court ruling that Trump cannot use executive privilege to block the National Archives from producing documents to the Jan 6 Committee ,” McQuade said.

McQuade added that Biden and the Supreme Court may reject calls to invoke executive privilege because it is not in the national interest to obstruct a criminal investigation, similar to what happened to Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal in the 1970s.

During the criminal investigation, Nixon was subpoenaed to hand over tapes and transcripts of conversations related to the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, DC.

When Nixon refused, the case went to the Supreme Court where the then-president lost and the tapes became public, resulting in his resignation.

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