On Monday, a former member of the Obama administration told Politico that he believed such a move could actually “fire” and make the Justice Department’s work in any such case even more difficult. This comes after a ruling last week by U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, who wrote that the former president “most likely committed a crime when he tried to illegally obstruct Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.” Ronald Weich, a law professor at the University of Baltimore and a former assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, told Politico that if the Jan. 6 commission issued a criminal complaint against Trump, it would only add to things. policy in the mixing. “A formal referral of a criminal case by Congress to this situation could fail. The decisions of the Department of Justice should not be influenced by political pressure and so it may seem. A referral could make prosecuting the Department more difficult,” he said. Weich. Some legal experts have said that if the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol Uprising prosecutes the Justice Department against former President Donald Trump, it could “fire”, making it more difficult for the administration. Scott Olson / Getty Images Weich is not the only legal expert to have such an opinion. Randall Eliason, a professor of criminal law at George Washington University, also told Politico that any such move by Congress would probably not be worthwhile in the long run. “It would have no legal effect, only political,” he said. “And Congress would not tell the Department of Justice anything it does not already know or that it could not say to the Department of Justice without reference. Therefore, I still feel that the costs outweigh the benefits.” In a ruling last week, Carter ordered the commission to deliver about 100 emails from lawyer John Eastman as part of its investigation. Eastman, the lawyer who allegedly advised Trump on efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 presidential election, hid the emails from the committee, citing the privilege of being a lawyer-client. Ultimately, the Department of Justice does not need a referral from Congress to prosecute, according to Politico. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California who is a member of the Jan. 6 committee, told Politico that a criminal referral from the committee was not absolutely necessary. “A reference means nothing. It has no legal significance, and I’m sure the Ministry of Justice has read it. [last week’s] “We do not need to tell them that it exists,” Lofgren told Politico. In an interview with NBC News in March, Wyoming spokeswoman Liz Cheney, one of the two Republicans on the committee, described Trump’s January 6 move as a “supreme breach of duty.” The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal warned last month not to prosecute the former president. He said such a move “could lead the country into a legal minefield and a political revenge battle more suited to a banana democracy”. Last week, the commission voted to keep two of Trump’s allies and advisers – Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino – in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate in their investigation. Newsweek contacted the office of Bennie Thompson, a spokeswoman for the committee, on January 6 for comment, but received no response prior to publication.
