Key Jan 6 Committee Member Says She ‘Sure As Hell Hopes’ Garland Is Investigating Trump: DOJ ‘Doesn’t Need to Wait’

Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) expressed “hope” that there’s a criminal probe into former President Donald Trump over his conduct during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Luria was a lead questioner during Thursday’s hearing by the House select committee investigating Jan. 6. The hearing focused on Trump’s inaction during the attack.

“Do you think that dereliction of duty is the only potential real takeaway from the president’s actions on Jan. 6?” asked MSNBC co-host Mika Brzezinski during Friday’s Morning Joe.

Luria replied:

I think we framed it in dereliction of duty which in it of itself under civilian law that’s not explicitly a criminal act. But when you look at the totality of this and we’ve laid it out over the course of the hearings leading up to this one where we focused in on what he did do, didn’t do. And going into it, it’s like there was an inaction for 187 minutes. But when that inaction is deliberate he’s not acting. When he has the tools to act, when he’s being urged by the people around him to act, you know, to me that’s a deliberate choice that he’s not acting because that’s part of the plan to let this play out and he’s on the phone.

Continuing to talk to [his lawyer] Rudy Giuliani, talking to senators, continuing to apply this pressure. So what maybe his inaction, what we expected him to do as the president to go stand up in front of the podium and tell these people to stop and go home and we’re going to hold you accountable if you broke the law, he doesn’t do that.

It’s one of the things where people frequently ask the committee, you know, are you going to do some sort of criminal referral, for example. What I would say is that our job as a congressional committee is not to determine if a crime was committed, it’s to put the information out there. And the Department of Justice doesn’t need to wait on us to do something. I sure as hell hope that [Attorney General] Merrick Garland has an open criminal investigation into Donald Trump.

“No one needs to wait for some formality from our committee to have that ball in motion,” she said.

Watch above via MSNBC.