‘A Theatrical Exercise’: Fox News Legal Analyst Argues DOJ Would Need to ‘Unwind’ Precedent to Charge Trump For Insurrection
Fox News legal experts, Andy McCarthy and Jonathan Turley, were decidedly unimpressed with the House Jan. 6 committee’s criminal referrals for President Donald Trump on Monday. McCarthy argued that the Department of Justices has already set a precedent that the Jan. 6 committee’s referrals would violate in prosecuting crimes surrounding the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The discussion kicked off with anchor Sandra Smith asking McCarthy, a former U.S. attorney, for his “general reaction to what we just heard.”
“Well, you know, again, I think not only is the Justice Department, as Jonathan, mentioned that this is not binding and, you know, the Justice Department could reject it,” McCarthy began, adding:
My sense is the Justice Department will ignore it, which is what the Justice Department generally does when Congress grandstands in this fashion. I would just point out the last referral that they made was about incitement and incitement of the violence at the Capitol.
The Justice Department has prosecuted upwards of 800 people on in connection with the Capitol riot. Insurrection is a federal crime. They have not brought a single insurrection case against anybody who’s been prosecuted. They have taken the position in the most serious cases that they brought in connection with seditious conspiracy, that Trump was not an unindicted coconspirator.
And to the extent that the defendants who were charged tried to blame Trump in those cases, the Justice Department took the position that he was basically a pretext for things that these militia-type groups were planning to do anyway. So the Justice Department, in order to prosecute Trump at this point for inciting or aiding and abetting the incitement of the Capitol riot, they would have to completely unwind and reverse the position that they’ve taken for about two years on these cases. So and the other thing about that is the committee knows that, and yet they don’t they haven’t addressed it.
“They don’t address it, you know, in connection with Trump’s speech, he took pains in the speech to say that, you know, he wanted them to march peacefully. The fact that the committee doesn’t broadcast that he said that doesn’t make that go away. So, you know, again, this is a theatrical exercise more than, you know, a real hearing process, McCarthy concluded.
Turley offered his analysis and struck a similar note as McCarthy.
“As you know, as a criminal defense attorney, I was really struck at how weak this was. You know, they keep on referring to things that might have occurred, appointments that might have been made, letters that might have been sent, but ultimately were not. That’s not a compelling case for a criminal prosecution,” he began, adding:
Many of us were really looking to see if they had anything new that was actually direct. I mean, you’ve got to keep in mind that within a few weeks, the alleged victim in this case, the House of Representatives, which is representing the people, of course, is going to change or maybe the new House is going to come in and they’re either going to try to rescind or renounce this referral, which puts the Department of Justice in a curious position.
I do think that and he’s right that the department will do what it will do regardless of this referral. What we’ve always said on this network, and some of us have emphasized, is that the more serious threat is coming from Mar-a-Lago, not January 6th. And I think that’s still the case.
“I think if you if you see this final meeting, you get the feeling of sort of a group of actors who refused to leave the stage. I mean, you’ve got, you know, a bunch of folks that are repeating exactly what they have said now and repeated hearings. And each time they’ve been they’ve said, we’re going to be bringing in some new powerful evidence and then they repeat it. You need more than that for a prosecution. You need more than mere repetition,” Turley concluded.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News
