Trump, top administration officials to be charged, former attorney general predicts

Former Attorney General Eric Holder predicted on Friday that Donald Trump, as well as other top officials in the former president’s administration, will be indicted by the US government over the events of January 6, 2021 and their efforts to alter the 2020 election results.

In early May, Holder, who headed the Justice Department from 2009 to 2015 under former President Barack Obama, told CBS News that he believed Trump’s Jan. 6-related actions deserved an indictment. Hundreds of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol on the day after the then-President told them to go to the Federal Legislature and “fight like hell” to save their country. Those instructions came after Trump spent months claiming President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was fraudulent while pressuring state and local officials across the country to reverse his political rival’s victory.

In a Friday night interview on HBO Real time with Bill Maher, Holder reiterated his view that Trump should be impeached. The former attorney general said he had previously been “concerned about the split in a case against the former president”.

“But now because of what we know of what great journalists have done, the leaks that the Committee of 6 can show the required intent, he needs to be charged,” he said.

Pointing to an ongoing investigation by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, the former attorney general hinted that this could be the strongest case against Trump. According to a leaked audio recording, the former president called Georgia’s Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, and urged him to find enough votes to tip the state’s election in his favor.

“They have him on tape saying find me 11,780 votes,” Holder said. “This one is on the verge of a layup, it seems to me,” adding that the Georgia probe could also become part of a federal case against Trump.

Holder further predicted that “a lot of high-level people in the Trump administration, I suspect the President himself, people in the Justice Department, will all find themselves on one little document that says, ‘The United States vs. fill in the blank out.'”

news week has reached out to a Trump spokesman for comment.

The former president has consistently denied any wrongdoing related to the Capitol riots and efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He continues to insist the results were fake, although there is no evidence to support the claim. On the contrary, dozens of lawsuits challenging the election have failed in state and federal courts. Even Trump-appointed judges have ruled against the lawsuits.

Trump’s former Attorney General William Barr, widely regarded as a loyal Cabinet member, has repeatedly said there was “no evidence” to support the former president’s claims. He wrote in his memoir that he told Trump directly that the allegations were “bullish*t” and that his legal team after the 2020 election was a “clown show.”

In particular, Peter Navarro, who served as Trump’s director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was indicted by a grand jury on Friday for failing to comply with a subpoena from Congress to testify in the Jan. 6 House Select Committee investigation. Former Trump adviser Steve Auch Bannon was indicted in a similar case in November.

The New York Times reported Friday that the Justice Department had taken no similar action against Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows or his former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino — despite failing to comply with congressional subpoenas.

In his interview with CBS News last month, Holder said he believed there was “sufficient factual information” to impeach Trump.

“And I think there will be enough evidence of intent. And then the question arises, what are the implications of such an accusation? I’m an institutionalist. My first thought was not to indict the former president out of concern about what – how divisive it would be,” the former attorney general said. “But given what we’ve learned, I think he probably needs to be held accountable.”