John Dean, the White House attorney for President Richard M. Nixon, dubbed by the FBI the master manipulator of the Watergate scandal, predicted that former President Donald Trump may finally be about to face some serious consequences for his actions. “I think a criminal case is going to come up,” CNN said after hearings by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault.
He said that while the Committee is not building a criminal case, it is likely that Justice Department prosecutors are using evidence uncovered by the Committee about Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 events on Capitol Hill. “I don’t see how prosecutors in the Justice Department can’t take a lot of this evidence and use it. “Trump is in trouble. Trump is in trouble.”
Dean, who eventually turned on Nixon and cooperated with prosecutors, spoke after testimony from Jason Van Tatenhoven, a former spokesman for the right-wing paramilitary group Oath Keepers, who said the organization wanted an “armed revolution” on January 6, 2021. .
That same day, former Trump supporter Stephen Ayres said he had not planned to go to Capitol Hill until Trump spoke. “The president pissed us all off, he told everyone to get down,” Ayres said. “So basically we just followed what he said.”
Dean said he was impressed by the testimony before the House Committee. “I thought they were powerful witnesses because they spoke from the heart. This is what they felt. That’s how they had performed,” he said. “They know they were wrong. They have rethought their position now and realize the power of this man. They were really classic authoritarian followers, who followed the leader.”
