President Biden will defer to his Justice Department on whether former President Donald Trump should be criminally prosecuted over the Jan. 6 sacking of the Capitol by his supporters.
The Biden administration would have “an independent Justice Department” to determine whether to launch a Trump-focused investigation and possibly charge him, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
“I am not going to speculate on criminal prosecution from the White House podium,” she told reporters during a Tuesday briefing.
The question over Trump’s criminal and civil legal exposure follows his second Senate impeachment trial acquittal last weekend — this one focused on whether he incited the angry rioters who clashed with police, forced their way into the legislative hall, and ransacked offices as they threatened then-Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and other lawmakers.
Democratic Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson sued Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani, and two right-wing groups called the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for their alleged roles in planning and executing the Capitol attack.
Thompson, the House Homeland Security Committee chairman, filed the federal civil lawsuit in the District Court for the District of Columbia as a private citizen. The NAACP and civil rights law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll joined the suit. They claim that Trump and his allies violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, a century-old law that protects former slaves and lawmakers from white extremists.
Some congressional Republicans signaled the possibility that Trump may still be pursued over the Jan. 6 violence in court after the former president was acquitted on a single insurrection impeachment article. Many senators justified themselves by saying it was improper to convict Trump because he is no longer in office while still holding him responsible for the violence, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Former President Trump’s actions that preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty,” McConnell said Saturday after the vote. “Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day.”
Biden reportedly prefers that Trump not be criminally prosecuted. However, he has also repeatedly stressed that the decision rests on the Justice Department.
“I’m not going to be telling them what they have to do and don’t have to do. I’m not going to be saying go prosecute A, B, or C,” Biden said last year. “That’s not the role. It’s not my Justice Department. It’s the people’s Justice Department.”
Attorney General-designate Merrick Garland is expected to be grilled on the matter during his Senate confirmation hearings. His hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, now controlled by Democrats, are slated to start on Feb. 22.
