MSNBC contributor Claire McCaskill said Tuesday after her network’s coverage of the House Select Committee’s January 6 hearings it would be a grave “risk” to the United States if former President Donald Trump were not indicted.
McCaskill said, “There is a concept in the law called willful ignorance or willful blindness. That’s not a defense in the law. You can’t ignore the facts and then claim because you ignored them somehow, you’re not guilty. Let me lay this out clearly.”
She continued, “Here is what I see. I see a man being told over and over again that there is no evidence of fraud, being told over and over again that he lost the election. Even his own crazy, weird, dye-dripping Rudy Giuliani admitted that they did not have evidence of fraud. His own crazy, incompetent lawyers knew they didn’t have evidence of a fraud. Then you have the December 16 draft executive order. If I were putting this case together, I would say that was the beginning of the conspiracy. They drew up this order to have the Secretary of Defense seize property without probable cause, without any evidence, which is wildly illegal in this country. Then in the meeting, in this executive order was about appointing of a special counsel. In the meeting, we now have Trump saying these people aren’t giving me what I need and appointing crazy Sidney Powell as special counsel. That is a conspiracy to do something illegal.”
McCaskill added, “In fact, to do something that is the most serious crime, I believe, that can be committed in this country, and that is to steal a presidential election. So I really think there’s enough evidence here to indict. Now, will he be convicted? I don’t know, but the risk of not indicting is so grave in this country in terms of respect and accountability under the rule of law. I just think it is a big risk to not do it. There may be jury nullification. There might be somebody on the jury that is a Trump supporter, and they refuse to convict, but I think that’s a risk that we have to take under the laws of this country.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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