Asked this Sunday morning on ABC for his thoughts about the likelihood of Trump’s prosecution, Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) — a member of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot — said he believes there’s “evidence of crimes” implicating Trump. Initially, he explained:
‘It does feel like, in the last few months, since we’ve started presenting our evidence, that there is a significant amount more movement in DOJ. I of course have to wonder, what were they doing the last year and a half, but I’m not going to complain, because I think, look — and this is important — we never want to get in a position as a country what you see in failed democracies, where every last administration is prosecuted.’
There are critical caveats here, Kinzinger noted: “But there is a massive difference between, ‘I’m going to prosecute the last administration for political vengeance,’ and not prosecuting an administration that literally attempted a failed coup. That is a precedent I’m way more concerned about is, if there is evidence that this happened from a judicial perspective, if there’s the ability to move forward on prosecuting and you don’t, you have basically set the floor for future behavior of any president…. So I certainly hope they’re moving forward. I certainly think there’s evidence of crimes, and I think it goes all the way up to Donald Trump.”
Kinzinger stuck by his perspective even when pressed by host Jonathan Karl about the historical nature of any potential Trump prosecution, including in the event he’s running for the presidency again, as he’s relentlessly hinted he’ll be doing. Check out Kinzinger’s remarks from Sunday below:
On the Justice Department potentially prosecuting the former president or his inner circle for Jan. 6, GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger tells @JonKarl: "I certainly think there's evidence of crimes and I think it goes all the way up to Donald Trump." https://t.co/RIqnEoKZ48 pic.twitter.com/ql2kUyOtWW
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) July 24, 2022
The panel where Kinzinger serves will be holding additional public hearings later this year after recently finishing up its first main series of hearings outlining the evidence it’s gathered. The committee has outlined, through troves of evidence, the personal responsibility Trump holds in destructive events on and surrounding January 6 — and yet, there’s been no mass break from Trump within the GOP. It’s still just a relative handful of voices among Congressional GOP’ers willing to indicate any kind of opposition to any of the most potentially destabilizing elements of the Trump agenda. If Trump wins the presidency again, there could be disastrous consequences — he’s said the war in Ukraine wouldn’t even be happening if he was still in office, which is ridiculous. In reality, he antagonized nations around the world throughout his time as president and could even help facilitate further aggression in Europe with his stated refusal to uphold NATO commitments.
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the riot panel, also appeared on Sunday morning television, where — among other points of discussion — she raised the prospect of issuing a subpoena for Ginni Thomas, the wife of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. She also reiterated her belief Trump must never be president again. Some of the key points spotlighted by the riot committee in the course of its investigation include that Trump couldn’t be said to have somehow been unaware of the documentation of the security of the election. He was, rather, ignoring repeated attestations from advisers to the integrity of the outcome.
