The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress and the attempt to overthrow the election will hold its final meeting on Monday, where it will vote on whether to refer Donald Trump for criminal charges to the Justice Department. The final report is slated to be published online on Dec. 21.
At that point, the whole committee will be disbanded before the Republicans take over Congress in January. But as former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks said after a conversation with Neal Katyal, Republicans could put a hitch in things for the Justice Department.
"I did some research today. Neal Katyal mentioned it, when I was on with him with this morning, and it's alarming," she said. "And it is that they could stack their own investigation. They could call witnesses, and witnesses could say, I'm not gonna testify, I'm taking the Fifth, and they could immunize them. And that's not a home run for them, because they could only give 'use immunity.' That means the person involved could still be indicted and tried for the crimes, and the transaction that's involved. They just couldn't have their testimony used against them."
She explained that it requires Congress to go to a judge and ask for the right to give immunity, the Justice Department would have 10 days' notice, and the DOJ could likely hold off for about 20 days.
"This is something we did during Watergate, before John Dean testified," Wine-Banks recalled. "We were in touch with the Senate, which was doing the investigation, and in the possibility that he would get immunity, put together the evidence so that we could prove that any prosecution that we went forward with was based on evidence we had before his testimony."
She said that the other tool that makes it not helpful is anyone can be tried for perjury. So, if someone lied when testifying a second time under the GOP, they would very easily be prosecuted.
"So, it's not as strong a remedy as maybe the House would like, but it's an impediment," she explained. "It will cause a problem. It will make a problem for prosecution."
See the conversation below or at the link here:
How Republicans could use Congress to save Trumpwww.youtube.com
