“Trump Is Individual-1, And No Longer A Sitting President” AG Merrick Garland Urged To Action During Judiciary Committee Hearing

Attorney General Merrick Garland sat down with the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday to testify about his oversight of the Justice Department. Members addressed concerns ranging from his memo about threats against school board members to the (hypothetical) indictment of Donald Trump.

A.G. Garland was pressed on a number of issues by members from across the political spectrum. One was the potential indictment of Donald Trump, the former president. Trump has been accused of, but not charged with, being linked to several violations of law. In this case, Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) is speaking of the charges Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney faced.

In that case, documents cited someone named as “Individual-1,” at whose behest Michael Cohen says he violated campaign finance laws by secretly paying off women to keep silent about their allegations against Trump, during his 2016 campaign. In the clip below, Steve Cohen presses Garland to explain why there has been no action taken to charge Trump, now that he’s not protected from prosecution as he’s no longer holding the office of President of the United States.

Cohen: I believe it’s pretty well known that President Trump is individual-1… He couldn’t be indicted because of DOJ policy, you don’t indict a sitting president. He’s no longer a sitting presidential…. pic.twitter.com/9Z0KtdpeXw

— Acyn (@Acyn) October 21, 2021

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Garland doesn’t affirm that Trump has gotten off free of charges in the case, though. He merely reminds Cohen that it is longstanding policy at the Department of Justice that they cannot comment publicly on ongoing investigations, and therefore he cannot officially confirm whether Donald Trump is under investigation for campaign finance violations or other charges, nor whether any indictments could be forthcoming against the former president.