Michael Sherwin, the former acting U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. who led the investigation into the Capitol insurrection on January 6, confirmed on Sunday night that the feds are investigating ex-President Donald Trump’s role in the violence that unfolded that day.
The prosecutor told “60 Minutes” reporter Scott Pelley in a pre-taped interview that the question is whether the former president, who told a crowd of his supporters to “fight like hell” and go to the Capitol right before they stormed the building, was “criminally culpable for everything that happened.”
“What I could tell you is this: Based upon what we see in the public record and what we see in public statements in court, we have plenty of people-we have soccer moms from Ohio that were arrested saying, ‘Well, I did this because my president said I had to take back our house.’ That moves the needle towards that direction,” Sherwin said. “Maybe the president is culpable for those actions.”
“But also you see in the public record too militia members saying, ‘You know what? We did this because Trump just talks a big game. He’s just all talk. We did what he wouldn’t do,'” the prosecutor added.
“We have people looking at everything, correct. Everything’s being looked at,” Sherwin said when Pelley asked if investigators were looking at Trump’s role in the insurrection.
The prosecutor also said the evidence they’ve uncovered so far is “trending” toward sedition charges against some of the suspects in the probe.
“I believe the facts do support those charges,” he said. “And I think that, as we go forward, more facts will support that, Scott.”
The day after the Capitol siege, Sherwin did not rule out the possibility that Trump would be facing an investigation for encouraging the mob to go to the Capitol after enraging them with lies claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Sherwin officially left his post after President Joe Biden appointed acting U.S. Attorney for D.C. Channing Phillips, who is now leading the investigation into the siege, as his replacement.
