Republican presidential candidate Mike Pence said Sunday he believes another criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump would “only contribute” to the feelings among Americans that the Department of Justice has “lost the confidence” of U.S. citizens.
“I do think that the Department of Justice has lost the confidence of the American people,” the former Vice president said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“If I’m elected president of the United States, we’re not just going to have a new attorney general, we’re going to clean house among all senior leadership at the Justice Department and we’re going to appoint men and women of integrity, who will have the confidence of Americans across the political spectrum for their rule of law,” he said.
Mr. Trump, who’s also running for president, said last week he expects to be criminally charged for a third time, with the latest case stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
He is currently facing charges for alleged campaign finance violations in Manhattan for hush-money payments to women before the 2016 election to shield extramarital affairs and for alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.
“I’ve said many times that the president’s words were reckless, that I had no right to overturn the election,” Mr. Pence said. “But while his words were reckless, based on what I know, I’m not yet convinced they were criminal.”
