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“‘I think President Trump is at a low point in his career.’”
That was Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday discussing former U.S. President Donald Trump before the House Jan. 6 committee’s criminal referral for his role in the attack on the Capitol.
The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to refer the following criminal charges against Donald Trump to the Justice Department:
- Obstruction of an official proceeding
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States
- Conspiracy to make a false statement
- Inciting, assisting or providing aid or comfort to an insurrection
It will now fall to federal prosecutors to decide whether to pursue any referrals for prosecution, the Associated Press has reported.
Before the referrals were levied, Hogan said he believed Trump should be held accountable for his role in the Capitol insurrection and called the investigation announcement “one of the darkest days in American history.”
“The people that try to whitewash Jan. 6 as if nothing happened are delusional. It was an assault on democracy,” he continued.
Hogan is seen by some as a potential GOP presidential candidate in 2024, and is listed as one of the 17 candidates on PredictIt.
In 2019, Hogan said he considered running for president in 2020 against Trump, but eventually decided not to — Hogan told the press he did not vote for Trump in the 2016 and 2020 Presidential elections.
“I think no man is above the law, not even the president of the United States, but I understand why people would feel that ‘it’s over, let’s just move on,’” Hogan said. “But I think other people have strong opinions that somebody has to be held accountable, and whether that’s the president or people in the administration — certainly they are holding accountable the people that actually did the rioting and the destruction at the Capitol.”
