Speaking on CNN this Thursday, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig said he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland when he says Donald Trump's potential 2024 candidacy won't determine whether or not he's prosecuted by the Justice Department, but added that "we have to live in reality here."
According to Honig, the principle question that Garland must face is, "can we convict this person?"
"If you think that's gonna be easy, you're not living in reality, and that inarguably gets that much more difficult if [Trump] becomes an announced candidate, a frontrunner, or even a nominee," Honig said.
Honig went on to say that former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson's decision to cooperate with the DOJ's investigation into the plots to overturn the 2020 election will provide a "goldmine of evidence" both for the January 6 committee and for the DOJ.
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Hutchinson, a former top White House aide with unique access to Trump and the inner workings of the West Wing, testified at the sixth June hearing of the House committee probing the attack on the US Capitol.
An executive assistant to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, she was a central figure in the White House around the period of the insurrection on January 6 last year.
"I think she's a very valuable witness, some of which she testified about in the committee was hearsay, but I want to say this: the claims that her whole entire testimony is hearsay, that's nonsense," Honig said. "That's just a cheap and I think unavailing attempt to discredit her."
In some of the most explosive testimony from the hearings so far, Hutchinson said Trump and some of his top lieutenants were aware of the possibility of violence ahead of the attack -- contradicting claims that the assault was spontaneous and had nothing to do with the administration.
Watch the full segment below or at this link.
With additional reporting by AFP