Despite Donald Trump’s unrelenting attacks on prosecutors, investigators and judges, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he remained confident in the criminal justice system where the former president faces four upcoming trials on 91 felony counts and believed the system would “prevail.”
“If you all were Department of Justice employees … I would say, ‘You want to help me? Do your job. You want to help the American people? Do your job.’ It doesn’t matter that it’s the former president,” Gonzales told journalists at the Crime Coverage Summit hosted by the Radio Television Digital News Association and the National Press Foundation.
“But I have confidence in the system; I think it will prevail,” said Gonzales, who served in the George W. Bush administration.
In a wide-ranging discussion about the looming challenges the prosecutions pose for the justice system and the larger democracy, Gonzales dismissed Trump’s claims that the cases were politically motivated and reiterated that the federal prosecutions should be considered for broadcast on national television. While many state courts permit televised proceedings, cameras have been largely banned in the federal courts since 1946.
“Congress hasn’t weighed in on this, but on this particular case, this would be a case where I think that an exception might be wise because the former president has made it clear to his supporters that all this is a witch hunt and that he cannot get a fair trial,” Gonzales said, referring to a public broadcast. “And I think it would be useful to have the American public have direct access to the proceedings.”
The former attorney general said there was no merit to Trump’s claims that the cases were aimed at undermining his campaign to re-claim the White House.
“I think given the actions that I’ve observed, he would be prosecuted; he would be investigated whether he was running for president or not, and that’s the way it should be in this country,” Gonzales said.
Alberto Gonzales, Photo by: BP Miller/Chorus Photography
He described Trump’s recent vow to exact retribution on those government institutions and officials who refused to support his false claims of election fraud – should he win election in 2024 – “dangerous” and called the former president’s consideration of future pardons for hundreds of incarcerated Capitol insurrectionists as “a slap at the criminal justice system, a slap at the Department of Justice, a slap at normal citizens.”
“I mean, these folks have been tried in our criminal justice system. They’ve been found guilty of committing a crime at the Capitol,” Gonzales said. “And to say in advance without even knowing the particular circumstances of the individual cases, that they’re hostages and that they were prosecuted unfairly, to me, undermines the rule of law and is damaging.”
Access the full transcript here.
Crime Coverage Summit 2024: Beyond ‘If It Bleeds, It Leads’ was sponsored by Arnold Ventures and hosted by NPF and RTDNA. NPF is solely responsible for this content.
