Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, said on Sunday that he believes the Department of Justice (DOJ) should investigate former President Trump for his actions on that day.
“If the department were now to take the position that you can’t investigate or indict a former president, then a president becomes above the law. That’s a very dangerous idea that the founders would have never subscribed to,” Schiff said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“Even more dangerous, I think in the case of Donald Trump. Donald Trump is someone who has shown when he’s not held accountable, he goes on to commit worse and worse abuses of power. So I agree … there was evidence that the former president engaged in multiple violations of the law, and that should be investigated.”
When moderator Margaret Brennan mentioned the notion of the political calculus surrounding the possible prosecution of a former president, Schiff said it would be worse to not hold Trump accountable at all.
“It’s certainly not a step to be taken lightly at all. At the same time, immunizing a former president who has engaged in wrongdoing, I would agree with our vice chair, I think is more dangerous than anything else, and the decision not to move forward to the investigation or not to move forward to the prosecution, because of someone’s political status or political influence or because they have a following – to me, that is a far more dangerous thing to our Constitution than following the evidence wherever it leads, including when it leads to a former president,” Schiff responded.
Schiff added that the latest committee hearings have shown Trump’s efforts to have the 2020 elections results overturned, noting how Trump didn’t make any efforts to stop the insurrection during that day.
“He wouldn’t lift a finger as he watched on TV police officers being beaten and gouged and sprayed with chemicals in the most supreme dereliction of duty ever,” Schiff said. “But also, those multiple lines of effort, I think, invoke various criminal laws and his conduct ought to be the subject of investigation.”