NBC News national security contributor and former FBI Assistant Director Frank Figliuzzi claimed on Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s coverage of the House Select Committee hearing of the Capitol riot investigation that the events surrounding the 2020 presidential election are beginning to look like a “criminal enterprise” with former President Donald Trump at the head like a mafia capo.
Anchor Hallie Jackson said, “We look at one of the next threads. One will have to do with chief of staff Mark Meadows. We heard from somebody close to Meadows, Cassidy Hutchinson. It is first time we have seen him on her camera. She has spoken extensively to the January 6 Select Committee, and it is likely we will see new evidence relating to Meadows and the plot in Georgia, if you will, his involvement there.”
Figliuzzi said, “I can’t help but notice this is looking increasingly like a kind of criminal enterprise, Trump at the head, almost like the capo of an organized crime family, people like Meadows, people like Giuliani, people like certain members of Congress we mentioned carrying out the acts, getting their hands dirty. As we see more and more of that, it will increasingly look to me like a criminal enterprise.”
He continued, “To that effect, it helps us project what accountability might look like. Because to make the mob analogy, prosecutors and investigators…in those cases will try to make the case first on the henchmen, the capos, the consiglieri, the captions, rely on them flipping or further evidence to develop to get to the capo himself.”
Figliuzzi added, “Don’t be surprised if you see that approach taken, don’t rule out the possibility those individuals would be charged for their role in this, certainly a first and then later if ever you get to the capo.”
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