U.S. Attorney in Sacramento denounces Capitol mayhem, calls for peaceful transfer of power

The Sacramento region’s top federal law enforcement official on Wednesday denounced the violence in Washington, D.C., and called on a peaceful transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden.

“As the senior federal executive branch official in the Eastern District of California, I wish to condemn in the strongest possible terms what occurred today in Washington, D.C.,” U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said in a statement issued to The Sacramento Bee. “This is a nation of laws, not mobs.

“I have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States on many occasions in my life, as an Army officer, as an elected district attorney, and as a United States Attorney. Each time that oath placed upon me an obligation to protect the rule of law in our nation. That obligation is something I, and countless others going back to the founding of our Republic, have devoted our lives to.”

Scott, who is in his second term as U.S. Attorney in Sacramento and was appointed to his current post by President Donald Trump, did not mention the president by name in his statement. But he called for support for the “peaceful transfer of power” despite Trump’s repeated false claims that the 2020 election results are fraudulent.

“The right to assemble peacefully and petition the government with regard to our grievances is embedded in the very First Amendment to the Constitution, but the conduct today in the nation’s capital is simply unacceptable and must stop,” he said. “We have a time honored process for the certification of our national election which is set forth in the law.

“Attempts to physically obstruct this aspect of the rule of law are completely inappropriate and must cease. We are blessed to be the inheritors of the greatest constitutional republic in the history of the world, one founded upon the rule of law, and we are flirting with destroying that inheritance.

“Let us come together in support of a peaceful transfer of power as provided for under our Constitution and mutually pledge to work together to strengthen our Republic so that we may pass our inheritance securely to those who come after us.”