'Begin a criminal investigation': George Conway explains what laws Trump broke after election defeat
George Conway called for a criminal investigation of Donald Trump's attempted "self-coup" after his re-election loss.
The attorney and husband to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that Senate testimony from former acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen shows a clear violation of federal laws by the twice-impeached one-term president and former assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark.
"This was absolutely one of the most dangerous moments in American history, the most dangerous moments by a president of the United States," Conway said. "We've seen the movie before in some way, that President Trump would try to coerce federal agencies into doing things that are questionable, benefitting him personally, he even tried to coerce a foreign country to do something to benefit him personally. But this is the most extreme possibility, that he would try to use the mechanisms of government, particularly the Department of Justice, to perpetuate himself in office indefinitely and launch a self-coup."
Conway said the ex-president appears to have engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the United States and violated the Hatch Act by attempting to coerce Rosen into engaging in political activity.
"If Donald Trump had directed or tried to coerce acting attorney general Rosen to walking down Pennsylvania Avenue with a 'Trump 2020' flag, that would have been criminal," he said. "Here, this was much worse. He was attempting to coerce the Department of Justice, coerce Rosen into engaging in what was a purely political act, precisely because they had told the president there was no interest of the United States in this, that there was no illegality, there was no law enforcement function performed by the Justice Department, and then he, then Donald Trump went on to basically say, just say it, just say it -- make this statement."
"That was all, as you point out, just for political purposes to, as has been pointed out, was for political purposes to influence the political branches, the congress to overturn the election, and to try to influence what the states were doing," Conway added. "That again, a purely political act, coerced by the president of the United States, who, by the way, as these reports made clear, was basically threatening Rosen with removal and substitution by Jeffrey Clark, the guy who was actually trying to -- who was basically conspiring with the president to overturn the election. That's coercion, fits like a glove. I know there's an inspector general investigation, but they should begin a criminal investigation because there's predication for such an investigation."
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