How to Evaluate Progress in the Justice Department's Jan. 6 Investigation

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2022

⏱️ 75 minutes

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Summary

There’s been a great deal of debate recently about how to understand the apparently slow pace of the Justice Department’s investigation into Jan. 6, particularly into Donald Trump’s personal role in the insurrection. On Lawfare, editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes made the case that everyone should just chill out and let the department do its work, while executive editor Natalie Orpett and senior editor Quinta Jurecic argued that it’s reasonable to push harder for the department to understand its particular responsibilities in upholding the rule of law in this unique political moment.

After that debate, Ben, Natalie, and Quinta put their heads together with former FBI official Pete Strzok—who’s expressed his own skepticism about whether the Justice Department is investigating aggressively enough—to map out some benchmarks for what to look for in the Jan. 6 investigation going forward. They wrote that up as a Lawfare piece—and then they sat down to talk about it on the podcast.

How will we know if the Justice Department investigation is proceeding aggressively? What signs should worry people hoping for legal accountability for the insurrection? Natalie, Pete, Ben, and Quinta discussed.

Note: This podcast was recorded before the New York Times published some new reporting on July 28 about the role of lead prosecutor Thomas Windom. Throughout the show, you’ll hear reference to a major report by the Washington Post published on July 26 stating that prosecutors have asked witnesses testifying before the grand jury about Trump’s individual actions before and on Jan. 6.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains advertising.
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0:14.0	That's patreon.com slash law fair.
0:18.0	Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,
0:22.0	rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.
0:29.0	What they are doing, they're looking at key players that are at the center of a lot of the activity that is being investigated criminally.
0:44.0	So the concern is, if they are not, because clearly they're leading these in a couple of areas for both Clark and Eastman,
0:51.0	they're out ahead of any, you know, investigator search of that. How are they coordinating with the criminal investigators?
1:00.0	I'm Quinted Jurassic, senior editor at LawFair, and this is the LawFair podcast, Monday, August 1st, 2022.
1:09.0	There's been a great deal of debate recently about how to understand the apparently slow pace of the Justice Department's investigation into January 6th,
1:18.0	particularly into Donald Trump's personal role in the insurrection.
1:23.0	On LawFair, editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes made the case that everyone should just chill out and let the department do its work.
1:30.0	Well executive editor Natalie Orpet and I argued that it's reasonable to push harder for the department to understand its particular responsibilities in upholding the rule of law in this unique political moment.
1:43.0	After that debate, Ben, Natalie and I put our heads together with former FBI official Pete Struck,
1:49.0	who's expressed his own skepticism about whether the Justice Department is investigating aggressively enough.
1:55.0	To map out some benchmarks for what to look for in the January 6th investigation going forward, we all wrote that up together as a LawFair piece,
2:03.0	and then we sat down to talk about it on the podcast.
2:07.0	So how will we know if the Justice Department investigation is proceeding aggressively?
2:12.0	What signs should worry people hoping for legal accountability for the insurrection?
2:18.0	Natalie, Pete, Ben and I discussed.
2:21.0	It's the LawFair podcast August 1st.
	...

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