House January 6 Committee urged the Justice Department on Monday to bring criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and his associates, completing their investigation Violent 2021 Capitol Rebellion Which the MPs have called the “Roadmap of Justice”.
As they mount one of the most detailed and aggressive congressional investigations in memory, the panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans are recommending Criminal charges against Trump and associates which helped him launch a multi-faceted pressure campaign to try reverse your 2020 election loss, The panel also released a lengthy summary of its final report, which concluded that Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the election.
The committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, both during the riots and during the insurrection itself, as it recommended the former president to the Justice Department for prosecution. The charges recommended by the committee included conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to make a false statement, and aiding an insurrection.
While a criminal referral is mostly symbolic, with the Justice Department ultimately deciding whether to prosecute Trump or others, it marks a conclusive end to an investigation that was almost its sole focus from the outset.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the criminal justice system can provide accountability, and added, “We are confident that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap for justice.”
Thompson said that Trump “broke the trust” that people have when they cast a ballot in a democracy. Thompson said, “He had lost the 2020 election and knew it.”
Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel’s Republican vice chair, said in opening remarks that every president in American history has defended the orderly transfer of power, “except one.”
The committee voted 9-0 to approve its final report, which will include findings, interview transcripts and legislative recommendations.
A 154-page summary of the report, made public as the hearing concluded, found that Trump engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the election, intentionally spreading false allegations of voter fraud, Congress was putting pressure on the Justice Department and his vice president. Join his efforts to overturn the results so he can stay in power and then refuse for hours to tell his supporters to leave the Capitol on Jan. 6.
While most of the report’s main findings are not new, it represents one of the most damning portraits of an American president in recent history. Whether he is prosecuted or not, the panel is detailing Trump’s sweeping efforts to overturn his defeat and what lawmakers say is his direct responsibility for the revolt of his supporters.
The panel, which will disband on January 3 with the new Republican-led House, has conducted more than 1,000 interviews, 10 well-watched public hearings and reviewed more than a million documents since its launch in July 2021. collected. As this mass of evidence has gathered, members have gathered to declare that Trump, a Republican, is to blame for the violent attack by his supporters on the Capitol nearly two years ago.
After beating police, injuring several of them, Jan. 6 rioters stormed the Capitol and disrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, Trump’s lies about widespread election fraud echoed and sent MPs and others running for their lives.
The attack came after weeks of efforts by Trump to reverse his defeat – a campaign that was detailed extensively by the committee in several of its public hearings, and laid out again by lawmakers at the panel on Monday. Several former Trump aides testified about his unprecedented pressure on states, on federal officials and Vice President Mike Pence to find a way to thwart the popular will. The committee also detailed how Trump incited a crowd at a rally that morning and then did nothing to stop his supporters for several hours as they watched the violence on television.
The panel aired some new evidence at the meeting, including a recent interview with Hope Hicks, a longtime Trump aide. Describing the conversation she had with Trump at that time, she said that Trump had told her that if he lost the election, no one would care about his legacy.
Hicks told the committee that Trump told her, “The only thing that matters is winning.”
While a so-called criminal referral has no actual legal status, it is a forceful statement by the committee and adds political pressure already on Attorney General Merrick Garland and Special Counsel Jack Smith, who are investigating Trump’s actions on Jan. Is. ,
The panel was set to form in the summer of 2021 after Senate Republicans blocked the formation of a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the insurgency. When that effort failed, the Democratic-controlled House formed an investigative committee of its own.
As the committee was getting underway, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, an ally of Trump, decided not to attend after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of his appointments. That left an opening for two anti-Trump Republicans in the House — Wyoming’s Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – to join seven Democrats, launching an unusually unified panel in a divided Congress.
While the mission of the committee was to conduct a comprehensive accounting of the rebellion and educate the public about what happened, they have targeted their work to one audience: the Attorney General. Lawmakers on the panel have openly pressured Garland to investigate Trump’s actions, and last month he appointed Smith, a special counsel, to oversee two Trump-related investigations, including one related to the insurgency and one related to Trump’s death. The Florida estate involves the presence of classified documents.
In court documents earlier this year, the committee suggested that criminal charges against Trump could include conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of official proceedings of Congress.
In “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States”, the committee argues that the evidence supports a presumption that Trump and his associates “entered into an agreement to defraud the United States” when they spoke about election fraud. disseminated misinformation in the U.S. and pressured state and federal officials to aid in that effort. Trump still says he won the election to this day.
The panel also alleges that Trump obstructed an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress in which Electoral College votes are certified. The committee said that Trump either attempted to sabotage, influence or obstruct the formal process on January 6 or succeeded and was “so corrupt” by pressuring Pence to attempt to overturn the results while presiding over the session. Did. Pence refused to do so.
A criminal referral to a sedition charge is an apparent attempt to hold Trump directly accountable for the rioters who stormed the building. The rarely used insurrection law criminalizes rebellion “against the authority of the United States” or any attempt to incite, engage in, or aid insurrection.
The committee could make ethics referrals for five House Republicans – including McCarthy – who ignored congressional subpoenas from the panel.
The panel included McCarthy, R-Calif., and Reps. Summoned Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Moe Brooks of Alabama. The panel has examined McCarthy’s conversations with Trump on the day of the attack and four other lawmakers had already met with the White House as Trump and some of his allies worked to reverse his election defeat.