George Conway urges Merrick Garland to prosecute 'the individual most responsible' for Jan. 6 — Donald Trump

On Wednesday, January 5 — the day before the one-year anniversary of the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol Building — Attorney General Merrick Garland declared that the U.S. Department of Justice “remains committed to holding all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law.” Conservative attorney George Conway, in response to that speech, stresses that the person he blames the most for the Capitol insurrection is former President Donald Trump.

In an op-ed published by the Washington Post following Garland’s speech, Conway—one of Trump’s most scathing critics on the right — argues, “If Garland means what he says, then the investigative road must lead prosecutors to the individual most responsible for the events of January 6: former President Donald Trump. To be sure, the Justice Department deserves plaudits for what it has done already: More than 725 people have been charged, and 165 have pleaded guilty. Seventy defendants have been sentenced, 31 to prison.”

The attorney continues, “But however guilty they might be, these defendants do not and should not bear the ultimate responsibility for the attack on Congress and the Constitution. As Judge Amit B. Mehta told defendant John Lolos at his sentencing, ‘I think you are a pawn. You are a pawn in a game that’s played and directed by people who should know better.’ As the pawns meet their fates, the man who led them to try to stop the peaceful, democratic transfer of power remains safe in his Palm Beach palace.”

Conway recalls that in late December 2020, he feared the possibility of violence on January 6, 2021 — when Congress certified now-President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory over Trump in the 2020 election.

“Not only did Trump deceive the mob, but also, he directed it,” Conway explains. “Trump urged the rioters to come to Washington on January 6, promising it would be ‘wild!’ On that day, he told his supporters to march on the Capitol, to ‘fight like hell’ — and warned that ‘if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.’ He told the crowd that ‘our country will be destroyed’ if Joe Biden took office, and that ‘we’re not going to stand for that.’ Trump’s intent was obvious well before January 6.”

Conway adds, “I tweeted, on December 26, 2020, ‘It’s pretty clear now that @realDonaldTrump’s next desperate play is to encourage disruption, if not violence, in Washington on January 6.’ I wasn’t being prescient; I had just listened to what Trump had been saying.”

According to Conway, Garland “must not fear that prosecuting Trump would be viewed as a partisan act.”

Conway writes, “So now, the question is: Will the Justice Department hold Trump responsible for his role in the attack?…. That Trump himself wasn’t present at the Capitol doesn’t shield him from liability for obstructing the electoral vote count or for any other crimes committed that day…. If the attorney general means what he says, Trump’s day in the dock will come — if not soon, then soon enough.”