According to Liz Cheney, the Wisconsin Republican who co-chairs the committee, Donald Trump's attempt to speak with a witness has been referred to the US Department of Justice.
It will be difficult to prove that a call is tampering with a witness.
Peter Zeidenberg, who served on the Justice Department's special prosecution team during the George W. Bush era, told Insider that Trump is lucky that the witness did not answer the phone. If he spoke with the witness, that could have been a big issue. I don't believe much can be done. It's the kind of thing that frightens the defense attorneys.
"After our last hearing, President Trump tried to call a witness in our investigation," Cheney said at the end of Tuesday's hearing. The person refused to answer the phone and instead called their lawyer.
The committee gave the information to the Department of Justice, according to Cheney. Evidence was shared in June that those in Trump's inner circle were trying to influence testimony.
Federal law forbids the use of intimidation in official proceedings. If a person is convicted of harassing a witness, they can be fined and imprisoned for as long as three years.
The revelation may have come early for the prosecutors, according to a former federal prosecutor. Trump is a subject of both the committee and the Justice Department's investigations, and now is accused of trying to influence testimony.
According to Insider, a former prosecutor with the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, Cheney was smart to put down a marker and warn Trump not to tampering with a witness. She presented enough evidence to justify a criminal prosecution.
He said that a phone call that didn't happen is not enough for a witness tampering charge.
William Jeffries, a white-collar attorney who represented former President Richard Nixon, agreed that there is not enough information to say that Trump tried to obstruct the committee.
Jeffress told Insider that contacting a witness in advance of his or her testimony is not a good idea.
The man who served as White House counsel during the Clinton administration agrees. It would be an insult to say that Trump's attempt to speak to a witness was dumb.
He has exposed himself to criminal charges of witness tampering and obstruction of Congress.
The former US Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama said that the call was not necessarily legal.
She said that the statute prohibits witness tampering. "Bringing a charge is dependent on how good the evidence is."
The US Department of Justice suggests that an unanswered phone call can be used to make a crime out of it.
It states that there is no requirement that the actions of the defendants have the intended effect.
Andrew McCarthy is a former federal prosecutor and writer for the conservative National Review. He criticized the committee for floating an insinuation of a felony.
But Philip Allen Lacovara, a former counsel for the Watergate prosecution team, said he thinks there's more to come, referring to Cheney's comments Tuesday as a "teaser" and noting the January 6 committee's demonstrated ability to structure its hearings in a way that maximized
He said that if the narrator mentions a gun on page three, someone has to be shot by page six. He mentioned the gun. Don't be surprised."
Tell us about a news story. C Davis is the reporter for Insider.
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