CNN’s Jake Tapper Asks Jan. 6 Chair Bennie Thompson ‘Are You Building a Criminal Case Against Trump’ With Hearings

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked House Select Committee Investigating the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol Chairman Bennie Thompson an intriguing question:”Are you building a criminal case” against former President Donald Trump?

On Thursday night, Tapper interviewed Rep. Thompson as part of CNN’s “Attack on Democracy: The January 6th Hearings” coverage, and noted that “the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys have been charged with seditious conspiracy.”

“Are you building a criminal case? I know you can’t charge, but are you building a criminal case for the Justice Department, potentially to charge Donald Trump with seditious conspiracy?” Tapper asked.

Thompson’s lengthy response was more of a “yes” than a “no”:

THOMPSON: Well, we are building a case based on the facts and circumstances that our investigation determined. We’ve filed with the court in California, certain aspects of what our findings have been. And the judge ruled that there were certain things that the president is guilty of that —

TAPPER: Yes. Or could be guilty of?

THOMPSON: Could be guilty of.

TAPPER: Yes.

THOMPSON: But, as you said, that’s not our job. We are there to look solely at the facts and circumstance and provide recommendations to Congress.

Now, the Justice Department has inquired as to our sharing of our information. We expect to make that available to them at some point because this whole effort is a publicly funded endeavor. So, the public has a right to know. TAPPER: But would you agree with the reporting that Jamie Gangel

offered earlier today, which is that you have a lot of audiences for your hearings, but there are also is Attorney General Merrick Garland as somebody that you expect and hope is watching. You are talking to him also. You are presenting a case for him to consider.

THOMPSON: Well, we are presenting the facts to the public. I think that if the attorney general gets an opportunity to view the entirety of our records, it would be very helpful to him. But that’s in his lane.

TAPPER: Yes.

THOMPSON: We are not trying to confuse the two. But at some point, we do plan to cooperate, if requested. And that’s what any law-abiding citizen would want to do.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has been under pressure to charge Trump, and responded to critics in April with a bit of a Rorschach test of a statement”  “the only pressure I feel, and the only pressure that our line prosecutors feel, is to do the right thing. That means we follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”

Watch above via CNN.