Watergate star witness predicts criminal charges after latest Jan. 6 testimony: 'Trump is in trouble'
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Tom Porter
Jul 13, 2022, 17:39 IST
Stephen Ayres and and Jason Van Tatenhove, an ally of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, at a hearing of the January 6 committee on July 12, 2022.Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images/POOL
John Dean, a former White House counsel and a Watergate witness, weighed in on the Jan. 6 hearings.
Dean said evidence aired Tuesday could warrant charges against Trump and his circle.
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John Dean, a key witness in the Watergate investigation, said that former President Donald Trump and others will likely face legal repercussions from evidence presented at Tuesday's January 6 committee hearing.
Dean described them as "really classic authoritarian followers, following the leader."
"Trump really knows how to push the button of his base, and can really make them respond on command," said Dean.
He argued that the testimony proves the extent to which the rioters believed they had been sent by Trump, which he said could be used by prosecutors were they to bring charges against the former president.
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Dean, 83, was White House counsel for President Richard Nixon. He was also a witness to Congress as part of its inquiry into the Watergate scandal. In recent years he has been a vocal critic of Trump.
One witness, Stephen Ayres, told the committee that he had believed he was following Trump's wishes in attacking the Capitol, and said that he left after Trump told them to do so in a tweet.
Commenting on that, Dean said: "I think a criminal case is going to come out of it. And I don't see how the line prosecutors at the Department of Justice can't take a lot of this evidence and use it.
"A lot of these people who are involved in this are going to be in front of a grand jury if they're not already. And Trump is in trouble. Trump is in trouble."
On Tuesday, the committee focused on links between people in Trump's circle and extremist groups at the forefront of the violence on January 6.
The committee could decide to make a criminal referral of Trump to the DOJ, which would then decide whether to launch an unprecedented investigation into a former president.
The department is conducting a separate investigation into the insurrection, and it is unclear if this touches on Trump and those in his circle.
It could independently launch a criminal inquiry into Trump on the basis of evidence presented in the hearings, a path Dean said was the most likely.
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Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to the riot. He said he sincerely believed the election-fraud claims that he pushed and which underpinned the riot, and said he did not condone the rioters' actions.
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