Michael Sherwin is the federal
prosecutor who's been overseeing
the Justice Department's
investigation into the riots that
took place in the Capitol on
January 6th.
Now, recently, he sat down to talk
about some of the evidence that
he's seen and what's likely to
happen in regard to charges.
He also teased something regarding
Donald Trump that I found
infuriating because the media ran
with it.
But before we get to that,
what are some of the charges
that the rioters might face?
He talks about that in this clip.
Take a look.
>> Two days after Michael Sherwin
stepped down from supervising
the investigation into the riots,
he said in an interview aired
Sunday night on 60 Minutes that
prosecutors are getting closer to
filing just such a charge.
>> I personally believe the
evidence is trending towards that
and probably meets those elements.
>> The former interim US Attorney
in Washington, Sherwin says he was
in the crowd on January 6th.
>> You could see it was getting
more riled up,
where it was initially pro-Trump,
it digressed to anti-government,
anti-Congress, anti-institutional.
When I saw people climbing up
the scaffolding hanging from and
hanging flags, I was like,
this is going bad fast.
>> Now what he's saying there is
that it's likely based
on the evidence that they've
already accumulated, that some of
these anti-government rioters would
be facing sedition charges.
That doesn't surprise me.
I think that that's likely
to happen.
Keep in mind that 400 people have
now been charged for their
involvement in the riots that day.
But then he moves on to the issue
of Donald Trump possibly facing
some criminal charges.
And I want to read what he says
slowly and carefully so
you guys can really understand what
he's saying here, okay?
And why the way the media has
covered it has been ridiculous.
He says, it's unequivocal that
Trump was the magnet that brought
the people to DC on the 6th.
Remember, he did that rally prior
to the riot breaking out.
But then he says this.
We have plenty of people,
we have soccer moms from Ohio that
were arrested saying, quote, well,
I did this because my president
said I had to take back our house.
That moves the needle towards that
direction.
Maybe the president is culpable for
those actions.
And then the media pretends like
the rest of the statement was
never made, but it was.
He also says, but also,
you see in the public record too,
militia members saying, quote,
you know what?
We did this because Trump
just talks a big game.
He's just all talk.
We did what he wouldn't do.
Look, my point is, it doesn't
matter what CNN has to say,
it doesn't matter what The New York
Times has to say, it doesn't matter
what anyone has to say.
Let's just be clear right now, so
we don't continue having this
ridiculous conversation.
Trump will not ever face criminal
charges for
what happened in the Capitol, okay?
That's it, end of story,
end of discussion.
I know the media is looking to,
let's milk the Trump story as much
as we can milk, milk, milk.
The DOJ will do nothing.
Donald Trump will not face any
criminal charges.
The idiots who followed
Donald Trump's demands,
they will face criminal charges.
Some of whom are going to be
charged with sedition.
But Trump himself, free to go.
Doesn't matter what he said,
doesn't matter what the public
record indicates,
free to go, period.
Anyway, Cenk.
>> Well, I'll go a little further.
I actually think Trump should
not be charged with sedition.
So okay, we've got a poll up on
YouTube on that,
you go to our channel and
then you hit community and you'll
be able to vote on that poll.
But let me make my case.
So first off, I want to clarify the
different charges that people could
face, as Ana told you, over 400
people have been charged already,
the lowest charge is trespassing,
it's not that big a deal.
That's a slap on the wrist in
effect.
A serious charge is conspiracy, and
people can get up to five years for
that, and a little over 10% of
the rioters have been charged with
conspiracy already.
And they have good evidence from
the Three Percenters,
the Oath Keepers, and
some of the Proud Boys that
they actually did plan to do this,
and so that's a significant charge.
But even so, max of five years,
when they're chanting hang the vice
president as they walk in and
they're looking to find Nancy
Pelosi and god knows what they
would have done to her AOC and etc.
It seems still seems low.
Sedition, no
one's been charged yet.
Will some of the riders who
are charged with conspiracy also be
charged with sedition?
Probably, should the president?
Well, let's read
you what Pelley read Sherwin, and
this is a statute on sedition.
Sedition is interpreted in a lot of
different ways.
But here's a quote,
sedition occurs with anyone who
opposes by force the authority
of the United States or by
force hinders or delays execution
of any law of the United States.
First of all, on the second half of
that, I don't think anyone
should ever be charged with that.
When you say it hinders or delays
the execution of a law, boy, cops
could use that to cast a very wide
net on a lot of political activity.
Well, I mean, we had a law and
you had caused us a five
minute delay in
executing it through your protest.
You're seditious.
I don't want any piece of that.
That's garbage and
I don't think anybody should be
charged with that, no matter where
they are on the political spectrum.
In terms of using force against
the United States government,
that's a core of sedition, well,
certainly a lot of those rioters
appear to have met that threshold
as you're breaking down the door of
the Capitol chanting about
executing political opponents.
And walking into the building,
looking to find those political
opponents.
In terms of Trump,
he did not break into the Capitol.
Did he encourage them?
Of course, of course he did.
So I'm not having a silly
conversation about, Trump,
golly gee, what would he know about
any of this?
No, he lied to them over and
over and over again about how
the election was stolen and he got
them to believe ridiculous things.
Did he spearhead that?
Yes, of course he did.
But he just spoke and you can break
the law by speaking, but it has to
be a much higher standard.
Go break into that building and
go hang Mike Pence.
Yes, then you got to charge
of sedition based on speech.
But him saying fight like hell and
walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, no,
because if that's your standard
on sedition, then boy,
I hate to see who they would apply
that to next, again,
anywhere in the political spectrum.
So that's the community tab we're
showing you there.
It's really easy, click on The
Young Turks anywhere on YouTube.
Then go to the community tab and
vote there.
I'm curious what you guys think
because I imagine a lot of you,
like us,
a lot of you hate Trump and
think he caused this.
But I'm curious where you
think he should actually legally be
charged with sedition.
Super last thing, Ana, is that
he did commit a political crime,
which is to encourage people
to rebel against the actual laws
of the United States of America.
That's why I would have impeached
him, but I would not have charged
him legally with a crime.
And there's a huge and
important difference there.
>> Yeah, so I want to give you
credit for actually thinking
ahead and thinking about what
the negative consequences could be
in charging him and
prosecuting him with sedition.
I didn't even get that far in my
thought process.
And the reason why is because even
if what he did was easy to prove as
seditious, it doesn't even matter.
I know I'm speculating here, but
what we've seen over and
over again in this country is power
protects power.
He was the former president of
the United States, we've had many
former presidents of the United
States who have broken actual laws,
committed war crimes, and didn't
have to deal with any prosecution,
didn't have to deal with
the consequences of their actions.
At least based on historical
trends, no sitting president
ever has to worry about suffering
the consequences of the crimes
he commits as soon as he's out of
office.
It's never going to happen.
And I get incredibly frustrated
with the media pretending as though
there's a possibility when we know
without a shadow of a doubt that
it's never going to happen.
That's just how our
system is set up.
The powerful protect the powerful.
The only person who's kind of
broken that trend is Trump himself
who shows no loyalty to anyone,
he doesn't care.
>> Yeah. >> But
he's not the one who gets to make
the prosecutorial decisions here.
>> Yeah, Ana, don't get me wrong.
I wouldn't do a poll on whether
Trump is going to be charged.
He ain't going to be charged.
Even if you think he's going to be
charged, you'd be wrong.
[LAUGH] because there's no way
the Democrats or the current DOJ
would have the guts to charge
Trump, even if they should.
And as I was telling
you in the poll, we think it's
a borderline case to begin with.
So there ain't no way in the world
they're going to do that.
I would fall out
of my chair if they did.
But I am still curious whether you
guys think that what he
did was actually seditious or not.