Swalwell: ‘Donald Trump Is the Biggest Legal Terrorist of Them All’

Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” called former President Donald Trump “the biggest legal terrorist of them all.”

Guest-anchor Kasie Hunt said, “I want to ask for your reaction to these Trump White House e-mails to the Justice Department essentially asking the DOJ to challenge the outcome of a legitimate election.”

Swalwell said, “It would be more surprising if these emails were not sent. It is really on-brand for what Donald Trump was trying to do before the election as he prepared the country for the big lie, after the election he started to propagate the big lie not just to the public but clearly privately to weaponize his own Department of Justice to overturn the will of the American voter. Frankly, we can’t allow this to pass without consequences. He was not— there was not a cancer on the presidency as John Dean described with Richard Nixon. The cancer was the president and everything around him he sought to destroy, the rule of law, our system of justice, our democracy. Now it’s on us. Do we want this to happen again? Do we want to say this is the new norm?”

Hunt said, “So Congressman, let’s talk about what your party in the House is doing about this right now because the House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney released the emails as part of the panel’s investigation. She is requesting transcribed testimony from the former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who was the one who was pressured by the Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and others in the White House to look into these bogus election fraud claims. Are you going to have to subpoena Rosen to get that testimony?”

Swalwell said, “I hope not, Kasie. Hopefully, Rosen is just a good person who comes in and tells us what he knew. That’s typically how it worked around here. Don McGahn broke tradition when he forced us to fight him in court for two years to complete his testimony. Donald Trump is the biggest legal terrorist of them all. People have learned from him you can just try and drag this out. Eventually, we are going to have to try to pass The Protect Our Democracy Act that Adam Schiff has authored. I am a co-sponsor of which would fast track reform in subpoenas, so you can’t just wait out Congress until a better Congress, in your own mind, comes to power.”

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