Former Attorney General Eric Holder on Saturday warned that the U.S. could face repercussions if President Trump is prosecuted following his presidency for allegedly violating campaign finance laws.
CNN host David Axelrod directly asked Holder in an interview if he thought Trump would be prosecuted once he left office.
“Well, I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Holder replied.
The former attorney general for the Obama administration noted former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018 when he admitted to campaign finance violations related to hush money payments he organized on Trump’s behalf.
“We already have an indictment in the Southern District of New York where Michael Cohen [was charged] relative to the payoffs, Michael Cohen’s already in jail with regard to his role there,” Holder said. “It would seem to me that the next attorney general, the next president is going to have to make a determination.”
Holder also cited court filings in the Cohen case where Trump was referenced as “Individual-1.”
Axelrod proceeded to ask Holder what the consequences would be of prosecuting Trump following his presidency, if impeachment proceedings do not develop as many Democrats hope. The CNN host acknowledged former President Gerald Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon after he resigned.
“Yes, I think there is a potential cost to the nation by putting on trial a former president, and that ought to at least be a part of the calculus that goes into the determination that has to be made by the next attorney general,” Holder said.”I think we all should understand what a trial of a former president would do to the nation.”
“But you know, I think looking back, I tend to think that that was probably the right thing to do,” Holder added, but he also reaffirmed his backing of an impeachment inquiry.
“I think that they should proceed with an impeachment inquiry, an impeachment investigation,” Holder said. “That doesn’t necessarily commit you to actually impeaching the president.”
Holder’s remarks follow the House Judiciary Committee’s vote on Thursday to organize the rules of its impeachment probe, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi remains skeptical of and has so far refused to call the probe an impeachment inquiry.
