January 6 Committee Votes to Refer 4 Criminal Charges Against Donald Trump to the Department of Justice
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The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol approved its final report Monday and voted to recommend four criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.
Ending an 18-month historic investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, the House committee announced Monday that it is calling on the U.S. Justice Department to seek charges including aiding and inciting an insurrection, obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement. The House committee is also seeking criminal and ethics charges against Trump allies.
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The committee affirmed its recommendation with a unanimous voice vote of all nine members.
Although the Jan. 6 committee’s action does not force justice officials to take any legal action, it sends a powerful message to the Justice Department and the American public that the bi-partisan committee believes Trump and his allies committed crimes.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the work of his committee and the Justice Department should be aimed at deterring future attacks on democracy.
“If we are to stay a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,” Thompson said.
Before taking its vote, the committee played highlights of sworn testimony, mostly from Trump administration officials, who detailed Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials and his justice department to change votes from Joe Biden to him, claiming the election was stolen.
When those efforts failed, Trump made his final pitch to Vice President Mike Pence to use his position as president of the Senate to halt the certification of the election. Two of Trump’s top lawyers while he was president, Eric Herschmann and Pat Cipollone, both testified that they firmly told the president and staff that Pence had zero legal authority to overturn the election.
Trump continued to pressure Pence anyway on Twitter. When he shamed Pence during the riot on Jan. 6, violence at the Capitol escalated, with some of the mob carrying a hangman’s noose and shouting, “Hang Mike Pence,” while smashing through Capitol Police to enter.
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The mob got within 40 feet of Pence inside the Capitol, as police were able to get him to a secure room. The committee displayed the timeline of Trump’s tweets, showing that when violence broke out at the Capitol, Trump waited more than three hours before sending a tweet asking the mob to stop and leave.
Thompson said Trump’s actions clearly were a danger to democracy and “the peaceful transfer of power.”
In addition, the committee is recommending that four members of congress be sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with subpoenas.
Committee member Jamie Raskin said they have not named all of the conspirators who might be charged, but expects the justice department to investigate everyone involved. The committee’s eight-chapter report reportedly includes hundreds of pages about the attack and Trump’s actions, and testimony from interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses and 10 public hearings.
