Jan 6 Committee Asks DOJ to Bring Charges Against Trump

On Monday, a committee consisting of seven Democratic members of Congress and two Republican members who opposed former President Donald Trump voted unanimously to adopt a report recommending to the U.S. Department of Justice that he be charged with defrauding the US, making false statements, obstruction, and inciting an “insurrection” on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.

The committee, established to investigate Trump’s alleged involvement in inciting a riot by his supporters that interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, has spent the past 18 months conducting its investigation.

Before the vote, Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) stated that the committee believes “that more than sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral” of Trump for “assisting or aiding and comforting those at the Capitol who engaged in a violent attack on the United States.” Raskin added, “The Committee has developed significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.”

Trump, who has accused the committee of conducting a “witch hunt” against him and called its members “partisan hacks,” on Jan 6, 2021 encouraged his supporters to protest “peacefully and patriotically” at the Capitol shortly before the riot occurred. The riot resulted in the deaths of five people, but only one of these deaths, that of Ashli Babbitt, a Trump supporter who was shot by a police officer, has been conclusively linked to the actions of another person.

Donald Trump’s campaign has accused the House January 6 Select Committee of being a “Kangaroo court” that “makes a mockery of democracy” and “insults Americans’ intelligence.” It also argues that the committee is not bipartisan, since only Democrats and “never Trumpers” have participated in the investigation, and that it has been a “vanity project” that has spent around $8 million in taxpayer money. The campaign also accuses the committee of altering a text message between Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) and then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and playing a “deceptively edited video” of the attack on the Capitol.

It is now up to the Justice Department to decide whether to prosecute Trump. In September, Trump said that he “can’t imagine” being indicted, but added that charges wouldn’t prevent him from potentially running for office again in 2024. In November, Trump announced his candidacy for the 2024 election.

Following the committee’s vote, Representative Adam Kinzinger (D-IL), one of the panel’s two Republican members, tweeted that “we now turn to the criminal justice system to ensure justice under the law. The American people can ensure he’s never elected again.”

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