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Dear John,
The televised hearings of the House Select Committee on the January 6 insurrection begin tomorrow, and mark a critically important milestone in the battle between democracy and autocracy.
The Select Committee’s inquiry is the most important congressional investigation of presidential wrongdoing since the Senate investigation of the Watergate scandals in the 1970s.
The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into Trump’s activities leading up to the attempted coup. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that the Justice Department will “follow the facts and the law wherever they may lead.”
As with Watergate, the facts will almost certainly lead to the person who then occupied the Oval Office.
This week’s televised committee hearings are crucial to educating the public and setting the stage for the Justice Department’s prosecution.
But the clock is ticking.
Our latest video lays out why Attorney General Garland must act to hold Trump accountable -- before it’s too late.
Some say that a president cannot be criminally liable for acts committed while in office.
What they’re forgetting is that Richard Nixon avoided prosecution only because he was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford.
Those who argue that Trump should not be criminally liable because no president in American history has been criminally liable, overlook the fact that no president in history has staged an attempted coup to change the outcome of an election.
Without accountability for these acts, Trump’s criminality opens wide the door to future presidents and candidates disputing election outcomes and seeking to change them — along with ensuing public distrust, paranoia, and divisiveness.
Thanks for watching,
Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action
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