Lawerence Tribe, a Harvard constitutional law professor, told CNN on Wednesday that since former President Donald Trump supported the rioters at the Capitol building on January 6, Attorney General Merrick Garland should be charging Trump with insurrection.
Tribe's reasoning for Garland pursuing charges against Trump is because the former president "gave aid and comfort to this group."
"He said that he loved them. He — he rallied them on. He cheered them on from his safe perch in front of the White House. I'm not going to judge the evidence in advance, but it seems to me that the Department of Justice would be remiss, and my other former student, Merrick Garland, would be remiss if he didn't take seriously the possibility of charging the former president with insurrection," Tribe said.
.@dailykos has decided to broadcast my view of the federal crimes Trump appears to have committed in aiding and abetting the January 6 insurrection. Here’s the gist of it:https://t.co/1A3FpH4hg5
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 13, 2021
He further called Jeffrey Toobin, who was fired from The New Yorker and took time off at CNN after being caught masturbating during a work video call, one of his favorite former students.
"After all, he has been sued under related statutes, both by Eric Swalwell and by Bennie Thompson, members of Congress. Those lawsuits, I think, are very strong, and with all respect to one of my favorite former students, Jeff Toobin, I think the fact that there would be legal problems in doing this for the first time is not a reason not to do it," he added. "There's always a first time, and this was the first insurrection that we’ve had since the Civil War."