A top Justice Department official pledged the agency’s efforts to investigate the Capitol riot will not be hamstrung.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco made the assertion as questions are being raised about whether the Justice Department will go easy on former President Donald Trump, as he is widely expected to enter the 2024 fray, and sources told Rolling Stone that Trump informed confidants that it can be difficult for prosecutors to “get to you” as president.
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“We’re going to continue to do our job, to follow the facts wherever they go, no matter where they lead, no matter to what level,” Monaco said on Tuesday, per the Hill. “We’re going to continue to investigate what was fundamentally an attack on our democracy,” she continued.
Monaco made her remarks during a cybersecurity conference in New York one day after MSNBC host Rachel Maddow raised the alarm in revealing a Justice Department memo, signed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, reaffirming a Trump-era order placing extra requirements on investigations into candidates in an election year.
Still, top DOJ officials took a pledge to investigate cases and follow the facts wherever they may go, Monaco stressed. “The mandate the team has remains, which is to follow the facts wherever they go, regardless of what level, regardless of whether the subject of those investigations were present on Jan. 6,” Monaco continued.
Traditionally, the Justice Department seeks to refrain from implicating major presidential hopefuls during the 60 days before an election; however, the 60-day rule is not a written policy.
So far, the DOJ has prosecuted over 850 related to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors have also issued subpoenas and reportedly expressed interest in those who promoted the use of an alternate slate of electors that could be deployed to swing the election to Trump in the event that his legal challenges prevailed.
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Allies of Trump are also being investigated by the House Jan. 6 committee and facing legal scrutiny from the district attorney in Fulton County, Georgia. The Jan. 6 committee is slated to give its second prime-time hearing of the summer Thursday, with a focus on Trump’s activities behind the scenes when the Capitol riot unfolded.
Trump told New York magazine that he has “already made that decision” on whether he will run in 2024 and that the remaining question left for him is when he will make the announcement.
