Urgent Federal Criminal Investigation Of Donald Trump Pushed By Adam Schiff

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By all appearances, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) really, really wants the Justice Department to seriously investigate former President Donald Trump in relation to his attempts to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

The Justice Department has publicly indicated that it’s conducting a rigorous investigation of certain elements of the multi-pronged attack on the democratic process following the last presidential race, but there’s been no public indication their probes have roped in Trump himself — yet. Discussing recently revealed subpoenas for people tied to a scheme in certain states Biden won to assemble essentially faked electoral votes for Trump and a recent federal search of the home of former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark in relation to 2020 election-tied probes, Schiff said:

‘It certainly seems that there’s a greater sense of urgency than I’ve seen before. At the same time, I have yet to see any indication that the former president himself is under investigation. And I concur with what Judge Carter out in California said, that there is sufficient evidence to believe the former president violated multiple federal laws… You can’t say there’s a different standard, a different rule of law for former presidents — particularly when you took the position while they were in office that they couldn’t be indicted.’

Schiff suggested there’s a possibility that Trump runs for the presidency again but loses, leading to another stand-off over whether the democratic process will actually be upheld — and in that scenario, it’s not a given it’ll turn out the same way (meaning in favor of democracy) that it did after the last presidential race. Schiff added:

‘It’s not a difficult decision to investigate when there’s evidence before you. And I think the worst case scenario is not that Donald Trump runs and wins, but that he runs and loses, and they overturn the election because there’s no deterrent, because there’s no effort to push back… If you follow the evidence where it leads, if you believe that you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt, then you have a duty to prosecute. And the decision not to investigate or not to prosecute becomes a political decision that, well this person is immune from the rule of law.’

Watch Schiff’s comments below:

Schiff serves on the January 6 panel in the House, which had its most recent public hearing last Thursday. Public hearings of the panel are set to resume in July; in the meantime, the committee probe is continuing. One of the likely most startling new revelations from recent proceedings is that six Republican members of Congress apparently sought presidential pardons from Donald Trump following the 2020 presidential race. That list includes familiar names like Florida’s Matt Gaetz and Alabama’s Mo Brooks. In a follow-up statement, Brooks claimed there “was a concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans who acted pursuant to their Constitutional or statutory duties under 3 USC 15.” The perpetual right-wing persecution complex is so weird. As for Trump, he’s been personally implicated in the course of the riot committee’s work in the scheme to assemble faked electoral votes and what Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) called a “fraudulent fundraising scheme” following the last election, among other things.