'Battle royale' in Department of Justice over whether to charge Trump: Watergate sleuth
by Daniel Chaitin, Deputy News Editor |
| July 17, 2022 09:41 AM
A "battle royale" is taking place in the Justice Department over whether to charge former President Donald Trump, Bob Woodward said on Friday.
The Watergate sleuth shared what he said were the legal and political aspects of the investigation surrounding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. "Legally," the matter is "in the hands of" Attorney General Merrick Garland, Woodward said, touching on what has become a touchy subject among some people eager for Trump to be prosecuted.
"There is a battle royale going on in the Department of Justice, in the administration, about whether or not to charge Trump," he said after telling the Morning Joe crew that they have discussed this before. "I don't think anyone knows the answer to that."
The Justice Department has levied hundreds of charges against people accused of storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, and recent activities, including the issuing of subpoenas in several states, indicate an expanded focus on efforts to use invalid alternate electors to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 presidential victory. The Justice Department inquiry is operating alongside investigations by the Jan. 6 committee and a top prosecutor in Georgia, who is looking into efforts to overturn the election results in that state. Trump has dismissed all of the investigations as political witch hunts against him. Garland, who has said he and prosecutors are keeping tabs on the Jan. 6 committee hearings, vowed in January to pursue Jan. 6 perpetrators "any level."
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