Merrick Garland Risks 'Wrong Approach' Over Jan. 6: Mueller Prosecutor

A former senior prosecutor with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe has warned that Attorney General Merrick Garland risks taking the "wrong approach" to investigating January 6, 2021.

Andrew Weissman wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times that the House of Representatives' Select Committee on January 6 had provided evidence of "a hub and spoke conspiracy" involving former President Donald Trump and others in his administration and Garland should investigate it on that basis.

Weissman served as senior prosecutor with Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and he said the Department of Justice (DOJ) had been conducting a "bottom up" investigation into January 6 thus far - similar to his own role in the Mueller probe.

But with regards to investigating January 6, "that is actually the wrong approach," Weissman wrote. "That approach sees the attack on the Capitol as a single event — an isolated riot, separate from other efforts by Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election."

Weissman argued that evidence presented before the committee should inspire the DOJ to change its approach and not have a "myopic focus" on the riot at the Capitol.

"The evidence gathered in the hearings describes a multiprong conspiracy — what prosecutors term a hub and spoke conspiracy — in which the Ellipse speech by President Trump and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol were just one 'spoke' of a grander scheme," Weissman wrote.

He argued that this approach "would avoid the thorny debate that has emerged as to whether Mr. Trump could be criminally culpable for inciting the riot during his Ellipse speech or if, on the contrary, his speech is protected under the First Amendment and the evidence too ambiguous to justify the extraordinary step of indicting a former president."

Weissman said it would be complex to bring a criminal case against individuals who weren't at the Capitol on January 6 if that case "looks solely at the riot itself."

The decision to indict a former president would require the DOJ to meet a very high bar and though Attorney General Garland is under pressure to act, there is as yet no indication he will move to charge Trump.

Weissman said that the Select Committee had revealed "evidence of a plot orchestrated by Mr. Trump and his allies in the White House and elsewhere" and that the riot was one "spoke" of this plot.

Other "spokes" include efforts to submit false Elector College certificates, pressuring officials in Georgia and former Vice President Mike Pence, and reported attempts to change the leadership of the DOJ, among other accusations.

However, Weissman expressed concerns about the DOJ investigation, highlighting the fact that they have not interviewed former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who delivered explosive testimony to the committee.

He also expressed concern about a potential "breakdown in the relationship" between the DOJ and the committee but added that a "thorough, fearless, competent and fair criminal investigation" was still possible.