- Former Nixon attorney John Dean expects the Jan. 6 committee to recommend charges against Trump.
- He believes the committee has an "overwhelming case" against the former president.
John Dean, White House counsel for former President Richard Nixon, said he expects charges to be brought against former President Donald Trump this week because of the "overwhelming case" made by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021 insurrection.
According to Politico, the January 6 committee will decide through a vote Monday on whether to recommend charges against former President Donald Trump to the Department of Justice and is poised to pursue that he be charged with insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the US government.
The committee is also expected to release a report on Wednesday, Insider previously reported.
On Sunday, Dean, who is a CNN contributor, told CNN host Fredricka Whitfield that Monday will be a "historic day" because of the vote. He argues that the panel has a case to bring to the DOJ and that he would be surprised if no charges were filed given that the department has hired a special prosecutor.
"I think they have much more evidence than we know. We know from their ten hearings what they have generally laid out," Dean said.
"I think even if they didn't do Trump there are certainly many others, but I think they will include Trump. And that's a unique problem in our system: We have not prosecuted a former president. There's all kinds of political fallout from that. There are practical fallouts from that and there are legal fallouts from it," he added.
Dean and Whitfield also compared Trump and former President Richard Nixon, who resigned after his involvement in Watergate began to be investigated.
"The Senate Watergate committee didn't venture this far when they were investigating Nixon," Dean, who was appointed by Nixon to head the Watergate scandal investigation in 1972, said. But unlike Nixon, who was pardoned after the Watergate scandal led to his resignation, Trump has already announced his 2024 presidential bid.
"It's hard to read his decision to run for president, and as early as he made it, as anything other than a defense of sorts that would cast the efforts to prosecute him in a very political light. That's the way he would want it. That way he could attract attention to his base and say 'Oh this is just a witch hunt, they don't want me to win the presidency again.'"
Dean doubts his presidential bid will shield him from legal consequences: "Well I don't think he's going to win the presidency again. I'm not even sure he'll with the nomination again, but this gives him some political cover which actually in a court of law should make no difference."
"I think it's very much about our democracy and not having our presidents abuse their power and use it to somehow corrupt the election process," Dean added.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.