Judging Freedom - Justice Dept. investigating Trump in Jan. 6 probe

Episode Date: July 27, 2022

Justice Dept. investigating Trump’s actions in Jan. 6 criminal probe People familiar with the probe said investigators are examining the former president’s conversations and have seized phone records of top aides https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation... #Trump #Jan6 #JuaticeDeptSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, July 27, 2022. It's about 1055 in the morning here on the east coast of the United States. The headlines this morning are that the Justice Department is making inquiry about the behavior of former President Donald Trump in the days and weeks leading up to and during the day of January 6, 2021. Don't misread the headlines. This is not the commencement of a criminal investigation of the President. Such an announcement of the criminal investigation of the president would be an earthquake in the political and legal worlds. This is the beginning of an investigation. So in order to begin an investigation, the government needs what's known as articulable

suspicion, the ability to articulate some theory about what the president, the former president did that was criminal. Can the government articulate it? Sure, the government can articulate that there was a plot to substitute real electors from Arizona and Georgia with fake electors and there was a plot to prevent the Congress from meeting on January 6th in joint session in order to count and certify the electoral votes. Such a plot was a conspiracy. The aim of the conspirators was to deny the government of the United States a true and accurate result of an election. All of that is a federal crime. So the theory can be articulated. That's all the government needs to begin asking questions. Now, what questions are they asking?

Well, grand juries meet in secret, and everybody involved in the grand jury is sworn to secrecy except for the witnesses. So if a witness is brought before a grand jury, the witness can go outside the courthouse and tell anybody, including the media, what was asked and how the witness answered. And that is apparently what has happened. So we know from some witnesses that a grand jury exists in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department is presenting evidence to the grand jury of crimes committed on, before, and leading up to and during January 6th, and one of the persons whose behavior the prosecutors and grand jurors themselves are asking about is Donald Trump. That we know. If the government decides it's going to go beyond articulable suspicion, if the government believes there's probable cause, so here's articulable suspicion. Let's say on a scale of 1 to 100, it's about 25. Probable cause is about 51. If the government believes it's up to probable cause, it will send the former president a letter saying you are a target of a grand jury investigation. At that point, the criminal investigation has begun and is official. So the significance here is twofold. It's two sides of the same coin.

One is the government has reason to believe that it should gather evidence about Donald Trump in the days, weeks, and months preceding January 6th and on January 6th itself. The other is it doesn't yet have enough evidence to commence a criminal case in which the former president is targeted. This story is not going to go away. I believe that there's enough evidence to indict the president for crimes in Georgia. We'll see if there's enough evidence to indict the president for crimes in Washington, D.C. It appears to me that there is, but I'm not involved in the prosecutorial mechanics. That's up to some very bright lawyers in the Justice Department and ultimately to the Attorney General himself. More on this as it happens. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.