DeSantis on Trump Jan. 6 probe: ‘I hope he doesn’t get charged’

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Tuesday said he hopes former President Trump doesn’t get charged in the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 presidential election. 

“I don’t think it serves us good to have a presidential election focused on what happened four years ago in January,” DeSantis told CNN’s Jake Tapper in his first sit-down interview with a major nonconservative news network this campaign cycle. 

“I don’t wanna look back,” he continued. “I do not wanna see him — I hope he doesn’t get charged. I don’t think it’ll be good for the country. But at the same time, I’ve gotta focus on looking forward, and that’s what we’re gonna do.”

DeSantis’s comments come hours after Trump said he received a “target letter” on Sunday evening from special counsel Jack Smith, who’s leading the federal probe into the events of Jan. 6, 2021. 

“Deranged Jack Smith, the prosecutor with Joe Biden’s DOJ, sent a letter (again it was Sunday night!) stating that I am a TARGET of the January 6th Grand Jury investigation, and giving me a very short 4 days to report to the Grand Jury, which almost always means an arrest and indictment,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Tuesday. 

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More coverage of the Jan. 6 probe from The Hill

• Trump notified he is target in DOJ’s Jan. 6 investigation
• Kasich urges GOP candidates to ‘step up and say something’ after Trump gets target letter
• Kushner, Hope Hicks testified before Jan. 6 grand jury: reports

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DeSantis was asked about the development earlier on Tuesday at a campaign event in South Carolina. 

“I think it was shown how he was in the White House and didn’t do anything while things were going on. He should have come out more forcefully,” DeSantis said of Trump. “But to try to criminalize that, that’s a different issue entirely. We want to be in a situation where you don’t have one side just constantly trying to put the other side in jail, and that unfortunately is what we’re seeing now.”

Despite Trump’s growing legal woes, DeSantis continues to trail him in second place in the Republican presidential primary. 

The Florida governor has for the most part been careful not to criticize Trump too harshly, particularly over his legal issues. Late last month, DeSantis dodged a question about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“I wasn’t anywhere near Washington that day. I have nothing to do with what happened that day,” he said when asked about the attack during a campaign event in New Hampshire.