Risk of criminal prosecution of Trump is growing
2022.12.19 01:42
Risk of criminal prosecution of Trump is growing
Budrigannews.com – The U.S. Place of Agents panel examining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Legislative hall by Donald Trump allies moves to wrap up its work this week with what could be upwards of three criminal references against the previous president.
Inspired by Trump’s false claims that his defeat in the 2020 election to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud, the Democratic-led panel has investigated the unprecedented attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power made by thousands of supporters of the Republican president over the course of 18 months.
According to numerous media reports, charges such as insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress could result in criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
The possible charges were first reported, citing unidentified sources, by Politico and the Guardian.
Monday’s meeting of the committee is scheduled to vote on its final report, which it expects to release in its entirety on Wednesday. Prior to the meeting, panel members have declined to provide specifics.
“We are concentrating on key players. Additionally, “where there is sufficient evidence or abundant evidence that they committed,” said Democratic committee member Representative Jamie Raskin to reporters at the Capitol last week.
However, the Justice Department would have to decide whether to pursue charges, so the impact of any referrals is unclear.
One of several investigations into the riot is the work of the select committee.
A special counsel, Jack Smith, is leading investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss and his removal of classified documents from the White House. A jury has already found members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia guilty of sedition for their role in the attack.
Even though Trump is vying for the Republican nomination to run for president again in 2024, the Jan. 6 committee is likely to be disbanded when Republicans take control of the House of Representatives next month.
From July 2021 to October 2022, a series of televised hearings and meetings were the committee’s most well-known work.
Those included dramatic videos of the attack, in which thousands of rioters stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence fleeing for their lives, testimony from close associates of Trump, including his eldest daughter, Ivanka, who stated that she did not believe her father’s false claims that he had stolen the election, as well as members of his administration.
According to numerous media reports, additional targets being considered for referrals include former Republican House member and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, attorney John Eastman, former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, and former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani.
All five of them were subpoenaed by the committee after they refused to testify, although some of them did so after being subpoenaed.
In October, it issued a subpoena to Trump, asking him to testify and provide documents; however, Trump filed a lawsuit to stop the action.
Over 140 police officers were injured and five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the riot. Damages totaling millions of dollars were done to the Capitol.
In the just about a long time since leaving office, Trump has kept up his bogus cases of political race extortion, in spite of the fact that many courts, state surveys and individuals from his own organization, including previous Head legal officer Bill Barr, have excused his cases as unwarranted.
During the committee’s hearings, multiple Trump associates testified that Trump wanted to join the riot as it marched toward the Capitol after a fiery speech and that he was aware that some of the rioters arrived armed.
In his bid to regain power, Trump has dismissed the numerous investigations he faces as politically motivated.
However, Republicans’ subpar performance in the midterm elections last month, which included defeats for a number of candidates who supported his election falsifications, demonstrated that a significant number of voters disagree with his claims.
When choosing a candidate for 2024, prominent Republicans have urged the party to move on from Trump’s focus on 2020. Two out of five Republicans polled in October by Reuters/Ipsos believed that Trump was at least partially to blame for the attack.
Any prosecutions that the committee recommended would be pursued by the Justice Department itself.
The committee recommended charging two Trump allies, and federal prosecutors have already pursued them. For refusing to testify, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was found guilty by a jury in July of contempt of Congress, and former White House adviser Peter Navarro will face the same charge in court next month.
Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith, a war crimes prosecutor, as the special counsel in charge of the Trump investigations. That activity was planned to disengage the examinations from any appearance of political obstruction as Trump and Biden get ready for a potential political decision rematch.
More Trump’s tax returns will be discussed next week
Four members of the committee, two of whom are Republicans, will leave Congress early next year. The other two, Republican vice chairperson Liz Cheney and Democratic member Elaine Luria, lost their elections, and Democrats Stephanie Murphy and Adam Kinzinger are retiring.
