Trump, the insurrection and the search for justice

The House select committee investigating the January 6^th insurrection received over 700 Trump White House documents – some of them torn up and taped back together. The batch includes a draft memo suggesting seizing voting machines. So far, the committee has conducted 475 interviews and issued scores of subpoenas.

This hour, we look at the investigation into former President Trump and his advisors’ potential involvement in the Capitol riots and efforts to delay certification or overturn the election. We’ll also discuss former Vice President Mike Pence’s recent comments that Trump was wrong in claiming Pence had the power to reject the electoral college votes, as well as the Republican National Committee recently deeming the insurrection “legitimate political discourse.” Finally, we’ll examine the legal challenges facing the former President, his family and his organization in New York and Georgia.

Guests

Ankush Khardori, contributing writer for New York Magazine, a contributing editor for Politico and a former federal prosecutor.

Elie Honig, CNN Senior Legal Analyst and former federal and state prosecutor. He’s a Rutgers University scholar and the author of Hatchet Man: How Bill Barr Broke the Prosecutor’s Code and Corrupted the Justice Department.

We recommend

Politico, What Does the DOJ’s New Jan. 6 Sedition Indictment Mean for Trump? – “One could reasonably see the conspiracy charge as part of a potential trail that could lead to Trump’s eventual prosecution. But there are good reasons to be dubious that the department is actually getting closer to charging Trump for his role in the events of Jan. 6 or his conduct leading up to that day.”

The New York Times, In Scrutinizing Trump and His Allies, Jan. 6 Panel Adopts Prosecution Tactics – “In what its members see as the best opportunity to hold Mr. Trump and his team accountable, the committee — which has no authority to pursue criminal charges — is using what powers it has in expansive ways in hopes of pressuring Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to use the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute them.”

The Washington Post, National Archives had to retrieve Trump White House records from Mar-a-Lago – “The recovery of 15 boxes from Trump’s Florida resort, including letters from Barack Obama and Kim Jong Un, underscores the previous administration’s cavalier handling of presidential records.”