The panel responsible for investigating the January 6 2021 riots at the Capitol has recommended criminal charges against former president Donald Trump and some of his advisers.
The United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack named a number of charges including an unprecedented charge of insurrection.
The charges included:
Charge 1: obstruction of an official proceeding
Charge 2: conspiracy to defraud the US
Charge 3: conspiracy to make a false statement
Charge 4: “Incite, “assist” or “aid or comfort” and insurrection
Committee Vice-Chair Liz Cheney said: “No man who ever behaved that way at that moment in time should ever serve in public office again.”
Charges, which also include obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States, were recommended to the justice department (DoJ).
The DoJ will not be forced to abide by the recommendations but is already investigating Trump.
The landmark moment came as the investigation into Trump and his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election drew to a close.
During the announcement, the committee said they believed they had sufficient evidence for criminal referrals against lawyer John Eastman and others.
Four Republican lawmakers are also being referred to the House Ethics panel for not complying with committee subpoenas.
These are GOP leader Kevin McCarthy and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Congressman Jamie Raskin suggested there could be more to come from the DoJ: “These are not the only statutes that are potentially relevant to President Trump’s conduct after the 2020 election…”The president’s actions could certainly trigger other criminal violations.
A report from the investigation is expected to be released on Wednesday.
Testimony was heard by over 1,000 witnesses and hours of video footage were reviewed along with over 1 million documents.
Trump denies wrongdoing and spokesman Steven Cheung said on Friday: “The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”
On January 6 last year, angry protestors stormed the building and a number of people died as Trump continued to falsely claim the election had been stolen from him by President Joe Biden.
Believing Trump had raised millions from donors after the election, Representative Zoe Lofgren said in her summary: “Donald Trump purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud.”
Death threats were made to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who today hinted he could run again in 2024.
It took 187 minutes for Trump to tell rioters to leave the Capitol in a statement.
The panel held its final hearing on Monday after 18 months of investigations. Before the summary, panel member and California Democrat Adam Schiff told CNN there was “sufficient evidence” available to charge the former president.
Schiff is one of seven Democrats on the nine-person panel of which just two are members of the GOP. They are Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney and Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger.
During his opening statement committee chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said: “The future of our democracy rests in your hands. It’s up to the people of this country to decide who deserves the public trust. Who will put fidelity to the Constitution and democracy above all else. Who will abide by the rule of law — no matter the outcome.”
The panel began forming in June 2021 and Kinzinger and Cheney were the only two Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote for it.
Fellow panel member and California Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren added: “[We have] been very careful in crafting these [charging] recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we’ve uncovered.”
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Trump remains an extremely controversial president, but reports indicate he is looking for support after a difficult few months politically.
He has fallen behind the likely challenger for the Republican primary Ron DeSantis in a number of polls, and some of the blame from within the GOP came his way after a poorer-than-expected Midterms.
