美国司法部长梅里克·加兰(Merrick Garland)周三重申，“没有人”，即使是前总统，可以凌驾于法律之上，因为一些国会民主党人呼吁在去年的国会大厦骚乱后指控唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)。
在新闻发布会上，一个明显充满活力的加兰两次表示，当被特别问到特朗普时，“没有人”可以凌驾于法律之上，民主党人表示，特朗普煽动了2021年1月6日的暴动，因为他毫无根据地声称2020年选民普遍存在欺诈行为。民主党人还提到了特朗普长达数月的更大规模的竞选活动，试图扭转他的选举失利。(特朗普坚称自己没有做错任何事。)
司法部一直在起诉与去年1月骚乱有关的各种案件。
司法部长周三表示，“关于司法部正在做什么，没有做什么，我们的理论是什么，我们的理论不是什么，有很多猜测，这种猜测将继续存在。”。“这是因为司法部调查方式的核心要素和法治的核心要素是我们不公开进行调查。”
加兰补充说:“我们必须让每个试图推翻合法选举的人承担刑事责任，我们必须以诚信和专业的方式做到这一点。”
在国会大厦遇袭后的18个月里，DOJ起诉了来自50个州的855名被告。根据检察官的说法，其中263名被告被控袭击、抗拒或妨碍官员或雇员，包括大约90名被控使用致命或危险武器或对官员造成严重身体伤害的人。
到目前为止，在1月6日的案件中，已有超过325人认罪;不到100名被告被判入狱。
前川普竞选团队和白宫官员史蒂夫·班农目前正在接受审判藐视国会的指控，对他故意不遵守众议院1月6日委员会传票的指控不认罪。
然而，随着调查叛乱的小组在6月和7月加大了公开听证会的力度，民主党人越来越多地呼吁DOJ起诉前总统本人——这是前所未有的，但并非不可能的举措。
相比之下，政府的立场一直是在任总统不能被指控犯有联邦罪行，只能由国会弹劾。
作为一项政策，联邦检察官在调查办公室候选人时会采取预防措施，因为他们不希望自己的工作影响选举——尽管也有例外，包括希拉里·克林顿，她反过来批评了DOJ在2016年竞选期间公开发言的选择，因为她从未被指控犯罪。
民主党人要求指控特朗普的呼声只是增加了，包括在1月6日委员会作证后，他知道1月6日在椭圆广场发表演讲时，人群中有人带着武器，即使他敦促他的支持者向国会大厦游行。
根据听证会上的证词，特朗普还试图在骚乱期间亲自前往国会大厦，但被他的特勤局特工拒绝。
“特朗普被告知暴徒是武装的。他派他们去国会大厦杀我们。他想进入众议院推翻选举。他袭击了一名特工，特工拒绝了他。他必须受到法律最大限度的起诉。,上个月发了微博。
另外，据众议院委员会称，DOJ表示有兴趣了解更多关于亲特朗普的计划，即向选举团提交假选举人以保持特朗普的权力。
特朗普可能是2024年总统候选人，他曾表示，该委员会的工作是赤裸裸的党派和片面的。
委员会成员众议员杰米·拉斯金博士，此前在美国广播公司的“本周”节目中说他想要的不仅仅是指控。
“我主要感兴趣的是告诉美国人民真相，这样我们就可以巩固我们的机构，防止未来的政变和叛乱，”他说。
“但我知道公众非常渴望追究个人刑事责任，我相信司法部和司法部长梅里克·加兰会做出正确的决定，对特定案件做出所有困难的决定，”他接着说。
Attorney General Merrick Garland attends the ceremonial swearing-in of Steven Dettelbach as the second person to be confirmed by Congress as the Director of The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in Washington, July 19, 2022.
塞缪尔·科勒姆/盖蒂图片社
该委员会的副主席，怀俄明州共和党众议员利兹·切尼，在“本周”节目中告诉ABC新闻的乔纳森·卡尔本月早些时候，她认为DOJ不应该避免起诉Trump。
她承认，对这个国家来说，起诉特朗普将是“困难的”，但她表示，不这样做将支持“更严重的宪法威胁”。
指控特朗普并不是一个新问题，尽管自从他离开白宫以来，这已经成为联邦检察官的一个选项。
前特别顾问罗伯特·穆勒对2016年特朗普竞选团队与俄罗斯勾结的指控进行的调查表示，无法最终清除对时任总统妨碍司法公正的指控。
AG Garland reiterates 'no person' -- not even Trump -- is above the law over Jan. 6
Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday reiterated that "no person," not even a former president, was above the law amid calls from some congressional Democrats to charge Donald Trump after last year's Capitol riot.
During a press conference, a visibly animated Garland twice said that "no person" was above the law when pressed specifically about Trump, whom Democrats say incited the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection over his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud in 2020. Democrats also cite Trump's larger, months-long campaign to try and reverse his election loss. (Trump insists he did nothing wrong.)
The Department of Justice has been prosecuting various cases related to the rioting last January.
"There is a lot of speculation about what the Justice Department is doing, what's it not doing, what our theories are and what our theories aren't, and there will continue to be that speculation," the attorney general said Wednesday. "That's because a central tenant of the way in which the Justice Department investigates and a central tenant of the rule of law is that we do not do our investigations in the public."
"We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism," Garland added.
In the 18 months since the attack on the Capitol, the DOJ has charged 855 defendants from all 50 states. Among those, 263 defendants have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees, including approximately 90 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, according to prosecutors.
There have been more than 325 guilty pleas in Jan. 6 cases so far; slightly less than 100 defendants have been sentenced to federal prison.
Former Trump campaign and White House official Steve Bannonis currently on trialover contempt of Congress charges, pleading not guilty to allegations that he willfully did not comply with a House Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
However, as the panel investigating the insurrection has ramped up its public hearings in June and July, Democrats have increasingly called for the DOJ to charge the former president himself -- an unprecedented though not impossible move.
By contrast, the government's position has long been that sitting presidents cannot be charged with federal crimes, only impeached by Congress.
And as a matter of policy, federal prosecutors take precautions when investigating candidates for office, as they do not want their work to influence elections -- though there are exceptions, including with Hillary Clinton, who in turn criticized the choice for the DOJ to speak publicly amid her 2016 campaign since she was never accused of a crime.
Calls to charge Trump have only increased among Democrats, including after testimony before the Jan. 6 committee that he was aware some in the crowd during his speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 were armed even as he urged his supporters to march to the Capitol.
According to testimony at the hearings, Trump also tried to go to the Capitol himself during the rioting but was refused by his Secret Service agents.
"Trump was told the mob was armed. He sent them to the Capitol to kill us. He wanted to go into the House Chamber to overturn the election. He assaulted a Secret Service agent who told him no. He must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the…law," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.,tweeted last month.
Separately, according to the House committee, the DOJ said it is interested in learning more about the pro-Trump scheme to submit fake electors to the Electoral College to keep him in power.
Trump, who is a possible 2024 presidential contender, has said the committee's work is nakedly partisan and one-sided.
Committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.,previously said on ABC's "This Week"that he wanted more than charges.
"I'm principally interested in telling the American people the truth so we can fortify our institution against coups and insurrections going forward," he said.
"But I know that there's a great public hunger for individual criminal accountability, and I've got confidence in the Department of Justice, in Attorney General Merrick Garland, to do the right thing in terms of making all the difficult decisions about particular cases," he continued then.
The committee's vice chair, Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney,told ABC News' Jonathan Karl on "This
Week"earlier this month that she believed the DOJ should not avoid prosecuting Trump.
She acknowledged that indicting Trump would be "difficult" for the country but said that not doing so would support a "much graver constitutional threat."
The issue of charging Trump is not a new one, though it is now an option for federal prosecutors since he left the White House.
Former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016 said it could not definitively clear the then-president of accusations he obstructed justice.
