CLEVELAND — Legal analysis: Following the completion of eight hearings into the events of January 6, 2021 and Monday's FBI search of former President Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, people are asking: Will the former president be charged with a crime?
Legal analyst Stephanie Haney breaks down the possible goals of the hearings, in a special edition of Legally Speaking.
One of the goals was definitely to raise awareness about what actually happened in our country on January 6 and in the weeks leading up to that terrible day.
The hearings may also have been used to gain support for a criminal conviction of the former president. The committee presented evidence that could make a strong case for several charges, including tying to stop an official proceeding of Congress, seditious conspiracy (the charge many of the rioters themselves face), witness tampering, and wire fraud related to raising millions of dollars for a so-called election defense fund that his aides said didn’t actually exist.
Now it will be up to the Department of Justice led by Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide whether to pursue charges against him or his aides.
Watch the Legally Speaking special on the January 6 hearings here:
Meanwhile, on August 8, 2022, the FBI searched Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said Monday, a move that represents a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.
Trump, disclosing the search in a lengthy statement, asserted that agents had opened up a safe at his home and described their work as an “unannounced raid” that he likened to “prosecutorial misconduct.”
The search intensifies the months-long probe into how classified documents ended up in boxes of White House records located at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.
It occurs amid a separate grand jury investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and adds to the potential legal peril for Trump as he lays the groundwork for another run.
Stephanie Haney is licensed to practice law in both Ohio and California.
The information in this article is provided for general informational purposes only. None of the information in this article is offered, nor should it be construed, as legal advice on any matter.
