Donald Trump may face another serious criminal case. Speculation about a possible pardon is humorously rebuffed by Joa Biden.
Washington DC - This answer is likely to be quite clear, even if no words were spoken. U.S. President Joe Biden merely grinned in amusement and turned wordlessly with his hand raised dismissively when a Fox News journalist asked him a question outside the White House in Washington. Reporter Peter Doocy asked him what he thought of the idea of an incumbent president pardoning Donald Trump.
Doocy's question was not plucked out of thin air. She was referring to a statement by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Trump's biggest rival for the Republican nomination in the upcoming presidential campaign. DeSantis had spoken in an interview on Thursday (25 May) on the question of whether he, as president, would pardon those accused in the course of the storming of the Capitol. When asked several times whether he would pardon Donald Trump himself, he avoided a direct answer, but left the possibility open, as the Washington Post reported.
Ex-President Donald Tump faces criminal charges over Capitol storming
The storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, by a radicalized mob of Trump supporters who wanted to prevent the certification of Joe Biden's election victory and the democratic transfer of power, resulted in five deaths, 140 injured law enforcement officers and looting in parts of the Capitol. This historically unique incident is being investigated by a congressional investigative committee, which has been collecting evidence for about a year and a half, including the testimony of 1,000 witnesses, ZDF reported.
In December 2022, the committee recommended that a criminal case be opened against former President Donald Trump. The congressmen accuse him, among other things, of inciting or aiding and abetting an insurrection, obstruction of an official process and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Whether this will happen, however, is still open, the decision lies with the Ministry of Justice.
"In the end, it depends on whether the justice minister has the political courage to really bring charges against Donald Trump in this charged mood in the country - and also in view of an incipient election campaign for the 2024 presidential election," said ZDF correspondent Elmar Theveßen.