There are symbolic gestures that are also historical. The House committee investigating the attack on the Capitol unanimously recommended Monday that Donald Trump be prosecuted for his involvement in the events of that ominous day and for his actions in the 64 days preceding a riot he instigated with his repeatedly proven false theories that the Democrats stole his November election. The nine members of the commission (seven Democrats and two Republicans) found him guilty of four felonies of inciting a riot, conspiracy to make false statements and defrauding the United States, and obstructing an official process of Congress. that is, from the vote to confirm President Joe Biden’s victory, which had to be held peacefully that day and was interrupted by a violent mob at the end of a Trump rally in Washington.
The committee, through the mouth of Maryland Representative Jamie Raskin, has also placed the Justice Department, which opened its own investigation on January 6, 2021, now in the hands of a special prosecutor to prosecute close Justice Department associates and a former president during that time . They are non-binding recommendations because the committee has no authority to initiate a judicial proceeding, but they carry enormous moral weight in establishing the involvement of Trump and his supporters in various serious crimes and will also have future ramifications on the responsibilities of the Presidents in fulfilling their obligations.
“And that responsibility can only be found in the criminal justice system,” said Speaker Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, in his opening remarks, introducing a dramatic video summarizing evidence obtained by the commission. Later, they gave way to the words of several of their members, who told the story in the same theatrical way that the supporters of some sessions have become accustomed to, which have led to comparisons with other crucial moments in the history of the country, such as the scandal of Watergate or the Iran-Contra investigation.
“We have every confidence that our work will provide a roadmap to justice to make those guilty pay,” added Thompson, who also asserted that Trump had broken the American people’s faith in democracy: “He has the election Lost in 2020 and I knew it. But he chose to try to remain in office through a multi-pronged plan to upset the results and block the transfer of power.”
Monday’s meeting was the last of a bipartisan commission that began work a year and a half ago. They conducted more than a thousand interviews, viewed more than a million documents and summoned a hundred witnesses. The results of these investigations were brought to the attention of the American public in a series of 10 dramatic televised hearings, some of which took place during prime time between June and October of this year.
The latest of those sessions also heralds a horror week (yet another) for Trump, which will continue Tuesday, when Congress is due to announce whether or not to release its tax returns, which are finally out after nearly four years of legal efforts by the magnate to block it your contribution. On Wednesday, the Commission will present its final report of January 6th, which will be divided into eight chapters, with the eight themes into which its 10 hearings have been divided, preceded by the publication of a summary today.
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Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, this Monday during celebration of the committee’s final hearing on Jan. 6. Al Drago (Bloomberg)
Two of its members, Republicans Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) and Liz Cheney (Wyoming), did not renew their seats in the new Congress in the last elections beginning the new year. The Conservatives’ victory has given them less-than-expected control of the House of Representatives, a control they will likely use to, among other things, bury this commission of inquiry and attempt to flip Trump’s criminal responsibility.
Cheney used his inaugural address to recall that “at the heart” of the republic was the guarantee of a “peaceful transfer of power,” citing moral references from his party such as Abraham Lincoln or Ronald Reagan. Cheney also recalled that on January 6, the former president stayed in the White House and watched everything on television, even though he knew he was the only one with the power to stop the attack and violence. “No man who is acting like this at a time like this is fit to hold a position of authority in our nation. He is not fit for any position,” he concluded.
White House offer
The prosecution’s request comes weeks after the tycoon launched his candidacy for the White House in 2024. He did so days after the midterm elections, which left the Republican Party, which in many ways still lives in his shadow, disappointed in the election, which Trump was blamed for supporting inexperienced and overly extremist candidates who were the prevented conservatives from regaining control of the Senate. The extraordinarily early announcement of his intention to run for president for a third term was seen as a way to get rid of the many legal messes that have plagued him from New York, where his finances are being investigated, to Atlanta, where a grand jury has plagued him , the harried considers the pressure to try to undermine the election results.
The Justice Department, which is not required to follow the recommendations of the Congressional Committee, will continue its own investigation as of Jan. 6. Among the most recent actions of this investigation stands out the subpoena of officials from seven states where Trump and his supporters tried to falsely confirm the Republican victory.
The hearing also served to refresh American public opinion’s memory of the key findings and the protagonists who marched before the commission Trump re-launched on his Truth account, the social network he created after his ouster from Twitter denigrated a January 6 result; In particular, he called them “corrupt cowards who hate our country”. [las mayúsculas son suyas]“. Characters like Cassidy Hutchinson, a young assistant to Meadows who witnessed things unfold in the Oval Office that day, paraded in a video amid fragments of footage across the screen that provided vivid examples of the extreme violence unfolding in the Capitol Played That Freezing Day, or testimonies of a security official who said that during those critical hours he called his family from inside the Capitol to say goodbye, fearing the worst.
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