criminal inquiry. i thought the guide that you coauthored was really useful on this, talking about the conspiracy to defraud the united states, obstructing official proceeding. i want how much you expected that framing, the understanding of this as a crime, to frame this year. chris, the commandment of the committee with a strong voice from both sides of the aisle is to get the truth out to the american people of that whole story. all the new things we know about january 6th since the second impeachment but also the long run up in the aftermath. they would be ill served to argue the case as prosecutors would. i believe that prosecutors will starting with the da down in georgia. that is not the committee s role. they need to put the facts out there, then, and they need to keep the objectivity, chris, so the american people will listen. then after they have laid out all of the evidence at the end
even though this isn t a criminal inquiry. i thought the guide that you coauthored was really useful on this, talking about the conspiracy to defraud the united states, obstructing official proceeding. i wonder how much you expect that framing, the understanding of this as a crime, to frame this year. hearing. chris, the commendment of the committee with a strong voice from both sides of the aisle is to get the truth out to the american people of that whole story. all the new things we know about january 6th since the second impeachment but also the long run up in the aftermath. they would be ill served to argue the case as prosecutors would. i believe that prosecutors will starting with the da down in georgia. that is not the committee s role. they need to put the facts out there, then, and they need to keep the objectivity, chris, so the american people will listen. then after they have laid out
that, but she doesn t have the authority, nor do her colleagues, to do anything about it other than hold hearings and write a report. so the critical question, as the judge articulated in sentencing mr. palmer for assaulting an officer is whether or not those who encouraged and orchestrated and led the attempted coup will be held accountable, but don t put the indictment cart ahead of the investigative course. the question is, really, right now, is there an investigation? if not, why not? normally, when there s investigation, we start to hear and see reflections of it, when those are called to grand jury for instance, we haven t seen that yet. i m not saying anyone shouldn t be charged with attempted coup. i am saying they should absolutely be investigated for orchestrating an attempted coup. but when it comes to the actual criminal statutes in question here, obstructing
i am saying they should absolutely be investigated for orchestrating an attempted coup. but when it comes to the actual criminal statutes in question here, obstructing official proceeding or impeding in impairing the lawful functions of the u.s. government, are those the kind of things that actually ever get charged? have those things a, been charged against the other january 6 offendents or otherwise charged as a matter of normal business within the justice department? or would these be exotic charges? i don t think there s anything exotic about it. they wouldn t to be appropriate for most of what the people were charged for in the january 6 riots, look, what those people did are awful. assaulting cops, battery, those are awful things and they should be prosecuted for it but let me give you an example that you will well know.