Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, also a former Republican U.S. Senator from Maine, said Friday on “MSNBC’s Reports” that it would be “political” for the Department of Justice to not to indict former President Donald Trump after the claims made in the House Select Committee’s first hearing into the January 6 Capitol riot.
Cohen said, “Liz Cheney needs a great deal of congratulations here. She’s a profile in courage. What was most compelling about her comments, they were understated—a kind of a Joe Friday, just the facts. I’m going to tell you what the facts are, lay them out for you. I’m going to present this as I might present this to a jury. The jury here is the American people. Then secondly, I would say to the Justice Department. If all of the facts are laid out at the end of this process where they file a complete report, and the Justice Department doesn’t take action, I would say the Justice Department then is acting politically in the face of overwhelming, compelling evidence for the Justice Department not to seek to hold the president of the United States and all of those who supported him accountable, that’s to me would be a political statement from the Justice Department. I understand that Justice doesn’t want to appear to be prosecuting or going after the president based on partisanship but the facts as they are being laid out leaves no question in my mind.”
He added, “In this particular case if these facts are laid out in a way that are overwhelmingly convincing and persuasive for the Justice Department not to seek some sort of complaint, information or indictment against the former president of the United States, I think that would be a political act reacting to what the public sentiment might be out there but not in materials of what the facts prove.”
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