Donald Trump and his aides should be prosecuted for their roles in the Capitol riot for the sake of American democracy, according to a congressman.
Kinzinger said that they don't want to be a country that prosecutes the last administration I can't imagine how this democracy will survive if we let the last administration get away with things.
"We have to be able to say that we are not going to prosecute the last administration for political differences, but we have to for straight up coup attempts," Kinzinger said.
The Justice Department and the committee, conducting separate but parallel probes, have clashed over tactics and the pace of their investigation.
Initially, the January 6 Committee did not turn over interview transcripts that could aid its prosecutions. The Department was incensed by the committee's referral of the two former Trump aides for contempt of Congress, but didn't prosecute them.
He suggested that the hearings may have been the catalyst that "lit a fire" under the DOJ investigation because he was "very frustrated" with the pace of the investigation.
The case for prosecutions is being made by the committee as they gather and present evidence that Trump broke at least five federal laws in his actions before the Capitol riot.
Kinzinger called the idea of a formal referral on paper "kind of an invented thing." The committee is able to issue a formal referral for criminal charges to the Justice Department. Steve Bannon is being tried for disobeying the committee Kinzinger serves on.
The DOJ knows what we know and they're looking into it. Kinzinger said that whether we send them a piece of paper quote-unquote'referring' or not will have little basis. We might do it just to make the point.
It's kind of awkward to say how you end things when you're waiting for something. The truth is important to the Americans.
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