Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a member of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot, is keeping up his push for the Justice Department to take action against Trump in connection to the events around and on January 6.
During a new appearance on MSNBC, Schiff expressed concern that the team of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis down in Georgia and investigators in Congress are, it seems, significantly ahead of prosecutors at the Justice Department in investigating January 6. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal indicated that public testimony to the riot panel from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson left officials at the Justice Department reconsidering the scope of their January 6 probe — but why would have key details of Hutchinson’s testimony been a complete surprise to the Justice Department? Were prosecutors not previously looking into that line of inquiry? Schiff commented as follows:
‘I’ve been a part of many Congressional investigations that have been contemporaneous with Justice Department investigations. But it is unprecedented for Congress to be so far out ahead of the Justice Department in a complex investigation… They’ve got potent tools to get information. They can enforce their own subpoenas in a way we can’t. We have to go hat-in-hand to them to enforce our subpoenas or to enforce a criminal contempt. And the idea that a year and a half after these events, they would not have talked to these witnesses — that even the Fulton County District Attorney is way ahead of them is, I think, cause for great concern.’
Watch Schiff’s comments below:
I’ve been part of several congressional investigations that took place at the same time as the Justice Department.
It is extremely unusual for Congress, let alone a local DA’s office, to be so far out ahead of the DOJ, given its much greater resources.
And it's troubling. pic.twitter.com/OgoiauMt0v
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 17, 2022
In Fulton County, Trump allies including Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were recently subpoenaed amid Willis’s probe into attempts by Trump and others to undercut Georgia’s election outcome. In relation to Willis’s probe, three key Republican figures in Georgia were recently informed they could be criminally charged. The list includes Georgia GOP chair David Shafer and GOP state Senators Burt Jones and Brandon Beach, who were all involved in some fashion in the attempt in Georgia to assemble faked electoral votes for Trump after the last election. Shafer and Jones signed on as some of the fake electors — and Jones is now the GOP pick for lieutenant governor in the midterm elections in Georgia. Even at the federal level, riot panel chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) recently indicated interest from the Justice Department in materials gathered by the committee at least initially focused on matters related to the multi-state fake elector scheme. What about the rest of what went on? Where’s the Justice Department?
