(This piece includes excerpts from articles originally published in their entirety in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and Law360.)
Before joining Selendy Gay, Aganga-Williams served as Senior Investigative Counsel for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Prior to that, he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Several prominent news outlets continue to seek insights from partner Temidayo Aganga-Williams as the indictments of former President Donald Trump pile up, including the most recent one over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Joy-Ann Reid, host of MSNBC’s The ReidOut, had Aganga-Williams as a guest to provide insights on how Trump’s latest indictment by Jack Smith, the special counsel undertaking the investigation, substantiates the work of the Jan. 6 Committee and introduces new evidence. “It gives me a big sense of pride to look how closely the indictment tracks the work of the committee. And it shows, it validates, the work we did and shows that we got it right, and I think now it’s up to the justice department to continue our work,” Aganga-Williams said.
Legal experts also credit the Jan. 6 Committee’s investigation with putting political pressure on the Department of Justice to indict. Aganga-Williams told The Washington Post. “Without the committee’s work, I have serious doubts as to whether the department would have moved in this manner and at this pace.”
The most recent indictment charges Trump with conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempting to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. “Trump may argue that when he made claims about the election, and otherwise sought to overturn the results, that he was acting in good faith,” Aganga-Williams tells The Wall Street Journal. “The indictment demonstrates that the special counsel has evidence that individuals from the White House to the Trump re-election campaign to the Department of Justice and state officials all told President Trump that his efforts to overturn the election were misguided and illegal,” he added.
Aganga-Williams was asked by Financial Times to weigh in on the indictment. He explained that the Department of Justice is arguing “that President Trump’s crime here began on election night, and it did not begin on January 6."
"They really focus on how much he tried to do that was illegal, that would have been illegal if no one went into the Capitol at all on January 6,” he added. “All these acts did not need violence at the end to be illegal…and what happened on the 6th was really a culmination of the failure of all of those attempted political coups.”
Law360 asked Aganga-Williams for his opinion on whether Jack Smith would face challenges proving Trump’s criminal intent. “Smith is fairly laser-focused on showing that Trump knew what he was doing and that he knew it was illegal,” Aganga-Williams responded.
