'I don't see how they can avoid' prosecuting Donald Trump: Elizabeth Warren says of Justice Department

Speaking to Raw Story, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) said that after the revelations uncovered by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, the Justice Department will have to step in.

"DOJ is conducting an investigation that's now public," she said, citing recent reports that Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff answered questions before the grand jury about former President Donald Trump.

Up until recently, the Justice Department has been investigating the fake electors scam in which members of Trump's campaign and legal advisers allegedly attempted to create a list of fake Republican electors. They then sent the names and signatures to the National Archives.

In one instance a staffer of Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) was tasked with ensuring the senator could deliver an envelope with the fake electors directly into the hands of the vice president on January 6.

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"Based on the House investigation I don't see how they could avoid that," Warren said of whether the DOJ would move forward on Trump. "Ultimately the Department of Justice will make their own independent decision about whether they have enough evidence to prosecute some or all of the people involved in the January 6 insurrection. DOJ has to make their own independent decision and that means independent of the politics. That's how the justice system works."

Amid calls by some Democrats for Trump to be prosecuted for the Capitol riot, Attorney General Merrick Garland said last week that "no person is above the law."

"This is the most wide-ranging investigation, and the most important investigation, that the Justice Department has ever entered into," Garland told reporters about the probe into the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters.

"And we have done so because this effort to upend a legitimate election -- transferring power from one administration to another -- cuts at the fundamental of American democracy," Garland said.

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"We have to get this right," he stressed. "We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election."

Asked whether that even applies to a former president, Garland said: "No person is above the law in this country. I can't say it any more clearly than that.

"There is nothing in the principles of prosecution, in any other factors which prevent us from investigating anyone -- anyone -- who's criminally responsible for an attempt to undo a democratic election," he said.

More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the 2021 attack on Congress, which came after Trump delivered a fiery speech to his supporters near the White House falsely claiming that the election was "stolen."

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Most of them have been charged with seeking to obstruct an official proceeding -- the certification by Congress of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory.

The 76-year-old Trump, who has repeatedly hinted that he may run for the White House again in 2024, was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot -- he was charged with inciting an insurrection -- but was acquitted by the Senate.

A select House committee conducting an investigation of the Capitol riot is to hold its eighth and final hearing on Thursday and plans to provide a detailed examination of Trump's actions on January 6.

With additional reporting by AFP