Donald Trump Jr appeared to goad the January 6 committee into recommending charges for his father in an odd tweet.
On Monday night, Mr Trump Jr responded to a tweet by Punchbowl News reporter John Bresnahan, who wrote that panel chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, said that the January 6 select committee “will NOT make any criminal referral to the Justice Department on Trump or anyone else”.
“That’s not our job. Our job is to look at January 6. What caused it and make recommendations after that … We don’t have the authority,” Mr Thompson said.
The chairman said that all of the panel’s documents will be released as part of its public report.
“If DOJ wants to talk to members/staff about that material, they will do so, of course,” Mr Bresnahan tweeted. “It’s important to note – and people get confused by this – that Congress isn’t equipped for criminal investigations. The [January 6 committee] can and has made criminal contempt referrals, but it’s not a law enforcement agency.”
“Almost like it’s just political theater,” Mr Trump Jr tweeted in response to the initial tweet from Mr Bresnahan.
Twitter users were quick to mock Mr Trump Jr.
“Almost like it’s a Congressional committee. You need to start worrying about the Justice Department,” one Twitter user posted.
“You really do lack education! Just like the Mueller Report, it’s on the DOJ to prosecute. But since [Trump Attorney General Bill] Barr was obviously your Daddy’s biggest supporter that didn’t happen. Now it will be on Garland and luckily for #TrumpCrimeSyndicate it seems he may be [too] afraid,” another account holder said.
“Are you talking about your father’s administration again?” a third Twitter user wrote.
“No Jr they’re a legislative committee that can’t bring charges. That’s up to the AG and the DOJ. Did you not learn anything in the 4 years your idiot father was president. God, you guys are so F***ing stupid!!! [It] hurts me!!!” one user wrote.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that he’s following the January 6 hearings amid the calls for Mr Trump to face criminal charges.
During a press conference on gun violence on Monday, CNN Justice correspondent Evan Perez asked Mr Garland if he has had a chance to look at the hearings conducted by the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot and if he’s learned anything that could be useful for the Justice Department.
“I am watching and I will be watching all the hearings, although I may not be able to watch all of it live,” Mr Garland said. “I can assure you that the January 6th prosecutors are watching all the hearings as well.”
He added that he wouldn’t be able to say what his own “personal response” to the hearings would be.
“The Justice Department’s long-standing position is that we don’t comment on ongoing investigations,” Mr Garland said. “We do that both for the viability of our investigations and because it’s the right thing to do with respect to the civil liberties of people under investigation.”
“We have charged well over 800 people now in connection with January 6th, some of them have pled, but others are facing proceedings. And for us to comment about evidence, some of which regards them, some of which regards others, could affect their cases and could affect our ability to proceed in an effective way,” Mr Garland said, adding that the investigation isn’t constricted “in any way”.
Mr Garland’s refusal to comment on the investigation comes as some members of the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol siege are pushing the department to pursue criminal charges.
“There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election, that I don’t see evidence the justice department is investigating,” Adam Schiff, a Democratic committee member from California, told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “I would like to see the justice department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump.”
Fellow committee member, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, told CNN’s State of the Union that “one of the conventions that was crushed during the Trump administration was respect by politicians for the independence of the law enforcement function”.
“Attorney General Garland is my constituent, and I don’t browbeat my constituents [but] he knows, his staff knows, US attorneys know, what’s at stake here,” he added. “They know the importance of it, but I think they are rightfully paying close attention to precedent in history as well as the facts of this case.”
