Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell declined Wednesday to state whether former President Donald Trump should be criminally charged for his actions related to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot on the U.S. Capitol, The Hill reported.
McConnell, asked about a possible indictment of Trump after the former president announced that special counsel Jack Smith had informed him in a letter that he is the target of a grand jury probe related to Jan. 6, said he does not plan to “critique” Republican candidates for president.
However, a month after the attack two years ago, McConnell harshly criticized Trump on the Senate floor at the end of his second impeachment trial, stating that “there is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president.”
But McConnell stated on Wednesday that “I’ve said every week out here that I’m not going to comment on the various candidates for the presidency. How I felt about that I expressed at the time, but I’m not going to start getting into sort of critiquing the various candidates for president,” The Hill reported.
At least 1,060 people have been charged by federal prosecutors due to their actions the day the U.S. Capitol was attacked, and more than 600 have pleaded guilty, according to a database compiled by National Public Radio.