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      Trump should face criminal charges, January 6 panel concludes: Politics Weekly America – podcast

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      On Monday, the House January 6 select committee held its final meeting, voting to formally adopt the report it had been working on for the last 18 months, referring the former president and some of his top advisers to the justice department for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
      Jonathan Freedland speaks to Hugo Lowell about what the committee found and what is likely to happen next

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      The Guardian and Observer charity appeal for 2022 is the cost of living crisis, and you can donate here Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to theguardian.com/supportpodcasts More

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      Jan 6 committee refers Donald Trump for criminal prosecution on four counts – live

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      The House panel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat has referred the former president for four criminal charges, including engaging in an insurrection, in what the committee’s chair says is a “roadmap to justice”.01:51The stunning, unprecedented referral of an ex-president came at the final meeting of the bipartisan panel on Monday afternoon. The nine members also voted unanimously to approve the final report of the 18-month investigation, which will be released on Wednesday.The committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, in both the run-up to the January riot and during his efforts to remain in power after his defeat by Joe Biden.The panel is also referring four Republican members of Congress to the House ethics committee for refusing to comply with subpoenas.The Trump referrals are for “influencing or impeding a an official proceeding of the US government”, “conspiring to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government”, and “assisting or engaging in insurrection against the United States”.Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the panel chair, said the referrals will be transmitted to the justice department in very short order.They are largely symbolic, as attorney general Merrick Garland will make his own decision on charges at the conclusion of the justice department’s own investigations, headed by special prosecutor Jack Smith.But, speaking to CNN after the session, Thompson said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I’m convinced the justice department will charge former president Trump. No-one, including the former president, is above the law.In his opening remarks to the meeting, Thompson said: “We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice.”John Eastman, Trump’s attorney, whom the panel said had helped Trump in his conspiracy to stay in power, was also referred. Unnamed others are also likely to face referrals, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and former department of justice official Jeffrey Clark.Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin announced the referrals. “Ours is not a system where foot soldiers go to jail, and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass,” Raskin said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The president has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order.Unanswered questions, ‘unsolved crimes’: the 6 January pipe bombs After more than a year of work, there are still key questions about 6 January that remain unanswered, including: who was responsible for placing the “viable” pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee headquarters that were discovered that day? Amazed that there’s not a single mention of the pipe bombs in all 161 pages of the J6 Select Committee’s exec summary of their findings, or in their final hearing. Have we all forgotten about the bombs found on J6 – or the fact that the bomb-maker remains at large?— Tess Owen (@misstessowen) December 19, 2022
      Asked about that issue, congressman Jamie Raskin said “I don’t believe there have been any updates since we first looked int to. Those are unsolved crimes,” CNN reported. #FBIWFO continues to work with @ATFWashington, @CapitolPolice, @DCPoliceDept to identify the person responsible for placing pipe bombs near the Democratic National Committee Headquarters & Republican National Committee Headquarters on 1/5, the night before the Capitol riots. 1/3— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) January 6, 2022
      January 6 committee Democrat who lost her House seat: ‘It’s all been worth it.’This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live politics coverage from Los Angeles.Democratic congresswoman Elaine Luria of Virginia, a member of the January 6 House committee, lost her reelection bid to her Republican opponent.As Luria recapped the January 6 committee’s recommendations this afternoon, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked her if she thought the committee’s work had played a role in her loss.Luria said she believed it had, but that she felt preventing another event like January 6 was more important than her individual political career.“It’s all been worth it,” she said.Luria also emphasized that the 2022 midterms more broadly had not produced a wave of victories for the most pro-Trump candidates, as the former president had hoped. “The most emphatic election deniers — they did not win,” she said.Donald Trump lit the flame, poured gasoline on the fire, and sat in the White House dining room for hours watching the fire burn as rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol. Today, he continues to fan those flames. This was his dereliction of duty. pic.twitter.com/2bj4zZfmC8— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) December 19, 2022
      Luria and other Democrats told the New York Times they believed the January 6 committee’s work had more importance for midterm voters than polls had indicated.Four law enforcement officers who came under attack during the January 6 Capitol riot have just been on CNN, sharing their thoughts about the criminal referrals for Donald Trump handed down this afternoon by the January 6 House committee.Daniel Hodges, DC Metropolitan Police:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s entirely appropriate. I don’t think anything is really surprising about the charges. The chatter was whether it would be meaningful at all for the committee to make these referrals and I think it is, even if it’s just symbolic.
      Symbols have meanings, symbols of power, and, you know, future generations [will] look back and say that this branch of Congress, this branch of government, did the best they could to make accountability happen.Michael Fanone, DC Metropolitan police:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I think it was appropriate having sat through each and every one of the committee’s hearings. This was the inevitable outcome. Again, you know, it is symbolic and it’s up to the Department of Justice, ultimately, to seek criminal accountability for those responsible for the January 6 insurrection.Aquilino Gonell, US Capitol Police:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}It’s been very meaningful to have that coming from Congress, given the amount of evidence that they uncovered, and it’s appropriate.Harry Dunn, US Capitol Police:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I’m glad that they did it. But respectfully to the January 6 committee, it’s been two years. We knew what they announced today on January 7, 2021.
      I really appreciate all the work that they’ve done and they’re continuing to do, and the justice department is doing. But I don’t even want to get into the what ifs if they don’t [charge Trump].Here’s our full story about this afternoon’s House January 6 committee meeting that approved criminal referrals for Donald Trump. Chris Stein reports:The January 6 committee has referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal charges, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.The committee’s referrals approved by its members Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. It comes after more than a year of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office.“The committee believes that more than sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of former President Trump for assisting or aiding and comforting those at the Capitol who engaged in a violent attack on the United States,” congressman Jamie Raskin said as the committee held its final public meeting.“The committee has developed significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our Constitution. The president has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order.”The committee accused Trump of breaching four federal criminal statutes, including those relating to obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States. It also believed Trump committed seditious conspiracy — the same charge for which two members of the rightwing Oath Keepers militia group were found guilty of by a jury last month.The lawmakers also referred four Republican House representatives to the chamber’s ethics committee. The group includes Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader who is expected to run for speaker of the House when the party takes control of the chamber next year.Read the full story:House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald TrumpRead moreDonald Trump could face up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted of the four criminal charges for which a House panel this afternoon referred him to the justice department.The US code on assisting with or engaging in an insurrection allows for a sentence of up to 10 years, and disqualification from holding or running for “any office under the United States” for anyone convicted.The former president announced his third run for the White House as a Republican last month.As for the other three charges Trump could face, all carry prison terms of up to five years, “conspiracy to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government”; and “influencing or impeding a an official proceeding of the US government”.There is, of course, uncertainty over whether the justice department will charge Trump with these crimes, far more whether he would be convicted. But this is the first time we know of the potential penalties Trump faces for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.We’ll see the full report (hopefully) on Wednesday, but here’s the executive summary of the January 6 House panel’s findings, published this afternoon at the conclusion of its final meeting.It gives an outline of the 18-month investigation and key findings that resulted in a criminal referral for Donald Trump on four federal charges today, including assisting in or engaging in an insurrection.You can read the panel’s summary here.The House panel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat has referred the former president for four criminal charges, including engaging in an insurrection, in what the committee’s chair says is a “roadmap to justice”.01:51The stunning, unprecedented referral of an ex-president came at the final meeting of the bipartisan panel on Monday afternoon. The nine members also voted unanimously to approve the final report of the 18-month investigation, which will be released on Wednesday.The committee alleged violations of four criminal statutes by Trump, in both the run-up to the January riot and during his efforts to remain in power after his defeat by Joe Biden.The panel is also referring four Republican members of Congress to the House ethics committee for refusing to comply with subpoenas.The Trump referrals are for “influencing or impeding a an official proceeding of the US government”, “conspiring to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government”, and “assisting or engaging in insurrection against the United States”.Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the panel chair, said the referrals will be transmitted to the justice department in very short order.They are largely symbolic, as attorney general Merrick Garland will make his own decision on charges at the conclusion of the justice department’s own investigations, headed by special prosecutor Jack Smith.But, speaking to CNN after the session, Thompson said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}I’m convinced the justice department will charge former president Trump. No-one, including the former president, is above the law.In his opening remarks to the meeting, Thompson said: “We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice.”John Eastman, Trump’s attorney, whom the panel said had helped Trump in his conspiracy to stay in power, was also referred. Unnamed others are also likely to face referrals, including former chief of staff Mark Meadows, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, and former department of justice official Jeffrey Clark.Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin announced the referrals. “Ours is not a system where foot soldiers go to jail, and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass,” Raskin said:.css-cumn2r{height:1em;width:1.5em;margin-right:3px;vertical-align:baseline;fill:#C70000;}The president has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order.Here are some more tweets from the House January 6 committee session today:Congresswoman Elaine Luria: “President Trump lit the flame, he poured gasoline on the fire and sat back in the White House dining room for hours watching the fire burn.”— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) December 19, 2022
      “Our Committee had the opportunity last Spring to present much of our evidence to a federal judge… The judge concluded that both former President Donald Trump and John Eastman likely violated two federal criminal statutes.”-@RepRaskin— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 19, 2022
      Liz Cheney: “Every president in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority except one.” pic.twitter.com/HmGcnjLbBq— Republicans against Trumpism (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 19, 2022
      The January 6 Committee has just referred Donald John Trump to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution.There is sufficient evidence that he committed multiple crimes. And it’s past time for him to face justice.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 19, 2022
      The four Republican congressmen who have been referred to the House ethics committee for refusing to comply with the January 6 panel’s subpoenas are Kevin McCarthy, the House minority leader and would-be speaker from California; Jim Jordan of Ohio; Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona.New: Jan. 6 referrals subcommittee chair Jamie Raskin recommends referring House Republicans — understood to be Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry and Andy Biggs — to the House Ethics Committee for failure to comply with lawful subpoenas— Hugo Lowell (@hugolowell) December 19, 2022
      Illinois Republican and penal member Adam Kinzinger appears to have hit his tweet button within seconds of the hearing ending:Our work on the @January6thCmte has led us to criminally refer Donald Trump to DOJ. We now turn to the criminal justice system to ensure Justice under the law. The American people can ensure he’s never elected again.— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) December 19, 2022
      The final act of the members of the January 6 House panel was to vote unanimously to approve its final report, which will be released on Wednesday.But the “wow” moment of the hearing, which lasted a little more than one hour, was undoubtedly the historic, unprecedented criminal referral to the justice department of former president Donald Trump, including for assisting with or engaging in an insurrection against the United States.We’ll have plenty more reaction and analysis coming up. Please stick with us. The January 6 House panel is recommending criminal referrals for Donald Trump, his lawyer John Eastman and others for violating four federal criminal statutes, Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin says.They are “influencing or impeding a an official proceeding of the US government”, “conspiring to defraud the US”, “unlawfully, knowingly or willingly making false statements to the federal government”, and “assisting or engaging in insurrection against the United States”.Four members of Congress will also be referred to the House ethics committee for refusing to comply with subpoenas, he says.“Ours is not a system where foot soldiers go to jail, and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass,” Raskin said.The referrals will be sent to the justice department in short order, panel chair Bennie Thompson says.More details to come… More

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      House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump – video

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      The January 6 committee has referred the former US president to the justice department for criminal charges, accusing Trump of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol. The committee’s referrals approved by its members on Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. It comes after more than a year of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office

      House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump More

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      The January 6 committee just gave a final blow to Trump’s very bad year | Lloyd Green

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      The January 6 committee just gave a final blow to Trump’s very bad yearLloyd GreenThe committee referred Trump for possible criminal prosecution. And politically he looks like a loser This year was bad for the 45th president. 2023 may even be worse. Criminal prosecutions may be forthcoming. Beyond that, the legacy of 6 January 2021, combined with the results of the recent midterms, left Donald Trump politically vulnerable.Stripped of the veneer of invincibility and inevitability, he looks like a loser. On Monday, the House committee on the January 6 attacks concluded that the evidence warranted referral to the justice department for possible prosecution.In the committee’s eyes, Trump unlawfully conspired to overturn the 2020 election and remained actively adjacent to the invasion of the Capitol. In its referral, the committee tagged the former guy for alleged obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the US, and conspiring to make a false statement.The committee also determined that sufficient evidence existed of Trump inciting, assisting, or aiding the insurrection. “The facts are compelling,” according to Trump administration veterans. His hold over the Republican party no longer appears ironclad.His headaches go beyond legal woes. Tennessee Republicans prefer the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, 54-41. Polls out of New Hampshire, Georgia and Florida show Trump trailing. In Texas, he is locked in a footrace with DeSantis.The luster is gone. Nationwide 62% of Republicans and Republican-leaners now believe someone other than Trump should be the party’s next presidential nominee. To be sure, his defeat in 2024 is not foreordained.In 2015 and 2016, Trump appeared fresh, compelling and incendiary. He captured the anger, grievance and imagination of the party’s white working-class base. He was a walking middle-finger gleefully shoved in the eye of a clueless and self-satisfied party establishment.His Republican rivals behaved like caricatures. “Jeb!” sleep-walked through the early primaries, dreaming of coronation. In the middle of February 2016, he exited the race without a win. Marco Rubio appeared robotic and hyper-caffeinated.By contrast, Trump spearheaded a movement. His rallies doubled as revival meetings. Those left behind no longer needed to bowl alone. The ex-reality show host birthed a congregation of the faithful. Their applause was his sustenance, his performance their sacrament. It was a two-way street.These days, Trump doubles as an aged huckster. He pitches NFTs bearing his image. “I can’t watch it again, make it stop,” Steve Bannon announced on his podcast.Fast forward. Trump’s presidential announcement from Mar-a-Lago, his Eagle’s Nest on the Atlantic, was a snooze-fest. No one would confuse it with his earlier trip down the escalator at Trump Tower.Back then, Bannon likened Trump’s descent to a scene from Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl’s Nazi propaganda film. “That’s Hitler, Bannon thought,” according to the New York Times’s Jeremy Peters.Now the sizzle is gone, replaced by a steady stream of damning headlines, needless errors and high-risk provocations. Trump bet that his candidacy would force Attorney General Merrick Garland’s hand. He wound up only half right.His move triggered Garland’s recusal and the appointment of a special counsel, Jack Smith. But where Garland appeared reticent, Smith conveys the air of Eliot Ness, the legendary federal agent. In the heat of a moment, Trump transformed the justice department’s inquiry.Substitute Al Capone for Joe Biden’s predecessor and you get the picture. The investigation was no longer a bottom-up endeavor, driven by the department’s career lawyers. Instead, it morphed into a top-down crusade led by a man who prosecutes war criminals.Since Smith arrived on the scene, the tempo speeds up; grand jury subpoenas fly out the door. Trump misread the terrain just as he had misunderstood the realities and downside of treating presidential records as personal baubles. Chalk up the record-keeping debacle at Mar-a-Lago as another self-inflicted wound.Indeed, his dinner with Ye, the antisemitic recording artist formerly known as Kanye West, and Nick Fuentes, the white supremacist, was made of ominous cloth, reminiscent of his September 2020 debate shout-out – “Stand back and stand by.” Three months later, the Proud Boys served as Trumpian shock troops.Past looms as prelude. Against that backdrop, Trump’s infamous pre-Thanksgiving dinner signals steadfastness with the mob that rioted on 6 January and a dog whistle for street violence if indicted.Whether the justice department indicts Trump is the open question. A New York jury recently convicted two of Trump’s companies. On Tuesday, the House’s ways and means committee will probably vote to release portions of Trump’s tax information. The hits keep on coming.If anyone forgot, two years ago to the day, Trump tweeted: “Big protest in DC on January 6th. Be there, will be wild.” It certainly was.
      Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992
      TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsOpinionDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump

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      House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald TrumpThe referral marks the first time in US history that Congress has taken such action against a former president01:51The January 6 committee has referred Donald Trump to the justice department to face criminal charges, accusing the former president of fomenting an insurrection and conspiring against the government over his attempt to subvert the outcome of the 2020 election, and the bloody attack on the US Capitol.The committee’s referrals approved by its members on Monday are the first time in American history that Congress has recommended charges against a former president. They come after more than a year of investigation by the bipartisan House of Representatives panel tasked with understanding Trump’s plot to stop Joe Biden from taking office.“The committee believes that more than sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of former President Trump for assisting or aiding and comforting those at the Capitol who engaged in a violent attack on the United States,” Congressman Jamie Raskin said as the lawmakers held their final public meeting.“The committee has developed significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our Constitution. The president has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order.”January 6 report expected to focus on Trump’s role and potential culpabilityRead moreThe committee accused Trump of breaching four federal criminal statutes, including those relating to obstructing an official proceeding of Congress, assisting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States. It also alleged Trump committed seditious conspiracy – the same charge which a jury found two members of the rightwing Oath Keepers militia group guilty of last month.In his opening remarks, the committee’s Democratic chair, Bennie Thompson, said Trump broke voters’ trust by mounting a campaign to stay in office, despite overwhelming evidence that he had lost.“To cast a vote in the United States is an act of faith and hope. When we drop that ballot in the ballot box, we expect the people named on the ballot are going to uphold that end of the deal,” he said. “Donald Trump broke that faith. He lost the 2020 election and knew it. But he chose to try to stay in office through a multiparty scheme to overturn the results and blocked the transfer of power.”A major architect of that scheme was John Eastman, a lawyer for the president who the committee said laid much of the groundwork for the strategy to overturn Biden’s election win. According to their evidence, Eastman helped Trump pressure Vice-President Mike Pence to disrupt the certification of electoral votes, even though the lawyer knew doing so would be illegal. The lawmaker referred Eastman on conspiracy charges.The lawmakers also referred four Republican House representatives to the chamber’s ethics committee. The group includes Kevin McCarthy, the GOP leader who is expected to run for speaker of the House when the party takes control of the chamber next year, as well as Jim Jordan, a staunch ally of the former president.His spokesman Russell Dye called the referral “just another partisan and political stunt”.Finally, the committee urged the justice department to investigate efforts to obstruct its investigation, including by “certain counsel … who may have advised clients to provide false or misleading testimony to the Committee”.The referrals are largely a recommendation, but will arrive at a justice department already busy investigating the former president for crimes he may have committed during and after his time in office.The attorney general, Merrick Garland, last month appointed the veteran prosecutor Jack Smith to determine whether to charge Trump over the insurrection and his efforts to disrupt the peaceful transition of power. Smith is also handling the inquiry into whether Trump unlawfully retained government secrets after leaving the White House in January 2021. His decisions in those cases will have huge ramifications for the future of the former president, who has announced he will run for the White House again in 2024.On Wednesday, the panel is expected to release a lengthy report into the attack that left five people dead and spawned nearly 1,000 criminal cases. That may be the final word from the committee, which many Americans hoped would follow in the mold of the bipartisan group that investigated the 9/11 attacks, but quickly ran up against opposition from Trump and his allies.Created by an almost party-line vote in the Democratic-led House, the nine-member panel has two Republican lawmakers, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both of whom were censured by their party for participating and won’t return to Congress next year.While Kinzinger opted not to run again, Cheney lost her primary to a Trump-backed candidate. In her final remarks as the panel’s vice-chair, Cheney recounted how Trump failed to act for hours as a mob of his supporters assaulted the Capitol.“No man who would behave that way, at that moment in time, can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again,” Cheney said. “He is unfit for any office.”Their nine public hearings held this year featured in-person testimony from witnesses and recorded interviews that shed light on how the attack happened, but the lawmakers also resorted to issuing subpoenas to a host of uncooperative former Trump officials and allies, some of whom are facing jail time for refusing to comply.In its second-to-last hearing held in October, the committee publicly voted to subpoena documents and testimony from Trump. The former president went to court to stop the summons, and time appears to be on his side. The committee’s mandate runs out at the end of the year, and in 2023, the Republican House majority is almost certain not to continue its work.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackHouse of RepresentativesUS CongressUS justice systemUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Five key conclusions from the January 6 panel’s final session

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      ExplainerFive key conclusions from the January 6 panel’s final sessionThe House committee has issued the first sections of its report and recommended criminal referrals for Trump The House January 6 committee has staged its final public hearing and issued the first sections of its report. According to its chairman, Bennie Thompson, it will both release “the bulk of its non-sensitive records” before the end of the year and transmit criminal referrals, for Donald Trump and others, to the Department of Justice by the end of business on Monday.From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreHere are some key conclusions after the final session on Capitol Hill.Trump is in troubleThe committee has decided to make four criminal referrals of Trump, his associate John Eastman and others to the justice department.In the hearing, the Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin introduced referrals for obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection.The referrals received unanimous support and may not be the last. Raskin said: “Depending on evidence developed by the Department of Justice, the president’s actions could certainly trigger other criminal violations.”The report discusses other conspiracy statutes, including seditious conspiracy, which it says could be considered. It also says the committee has “substantial concerns regarding potential efforts to obstruct its investigation”, and “urges the Department of Justice to examine the facts to discern whether prosecution is warranted”.Noting the need for accountability, the report points to recent developments including Trump’s stated desire to “terminate” the US constitution and says: “If President Trump and the associates who assisted him in an effort to overturn the lawful outcome of the 2020 election are not ultimately held accountable under the law, their behavior may become a precedent and invitation to danger for future elections.”The justice department is already investigating, under a special counsel, the notably aggressive prosecutor Jack Smith, who was appointed last month.In messages seen by the Guardian on Monday, former Trump officials acknowledged the strength of the case against Trump. A former administration official said the committee had made “a very solid recommendation” while a former White House official said: “The facts are compelling. These charges are coming.”Trump’s aim was clearly to stop BidenIn its final hearing and its report, the committee seeks to rebut Republican claims it has overstated its case. It makes clear the Capitol attack was not an isolated and chaotic event but the culmination of a concerted attempt, fueled and guided by Trump, to stop Joe Biden becoming the 46th president.As the section on the recommended referral for conspiracy to defraud the United States puts it, “the very purpose of the plan was to prevent the lawful certification of Joe Biden’s election”.House Republicans are breathing easierThe report considers the activities of House Republicans prominently including Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. Of such figures’ refusal to cooperate with subpoenas, it says: “The rules of the House of Representatives make clear that their willful noncompliance violates multiple standards of conduct and subjects them to discipline.” Therefore, the committee “is referring their failure to comply with the subpoenas … to the ethics committee for further action”.Raskin said the committee was seeking “appropriate sanction by the House ethics committee for failure to comply with lawful subpoenas”.But Republicans will take the House in January. Jordan, who the report labels “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts”, is on course to chair the judiciary committee. Unlike other panels the ethics committee is split equally but it will be led by a Republican. In all likelihood, Jordan, Perry and others are sitting pretty for now.Ivanka Trump and others were less than forthcomingThe report names Trump’s daughter as a witness “from the Trump White House [who] displayed a lack of full recollection of certain issues, or [was] not otherwise as frank or direct” as other, less senior aides.Describing an exchange between Donald Trump and Mike Pence on January 6, Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff said Trump called his vice-president a “pussy” for not going along with election subversion.The report says: “When the committee asked Ivanka Trump whether there were ‘[a]ny particular words that you recall your father using during the conversation’ … she answered simply: ‘No.’”Other aides are singled out. Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff, refused to testify but did produce a book in which he claimed Trump was “speaking metaphorically” when he told supporters he would march to the Capitol.The committee says: “This appeared to be an intentional effort to conceal the facts. Multiple witnesses directly contradicted Meadows’ account … This and several other statements in the Meadows book were false, and the select committee was concerned multiple witnesses might attempt to repeat elements of these false accounts.”“A few did,” it says. One was Anthony Ornato, a deputy chief of staff who said Trump’s desire to march on Congress “was one of those hypotheticals from the good idea fairy” and who denied Trump was “irate” when told, by Ornato in the presidential SUV, he couldn’t go to the Capitol.The report says other witnesses cited Ornato as their source for accounts of how Trump “was ‘irate’, ‘heated’, ‘angry’ and ‘insistent’. But Ornato professed that he … had no knowledge at all about the president’s anger.”The committee says it has “significant concerns about the credibility” of Ornato’s testimony, including his claim not to have known of information which suggested violence at the Capitol was possible. As Thompson indicated, Ornato’s interview will be among materials released.Trump paid lawyers and pressured witnessesIn findings detailed by the California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, the committee says it uncovered “efforts to obstruct” its investigation including a lawyer “receiving payments … from a group allied with” Trump advising a witness she “could, in certain circumstances, tell the committee she did not recall facts when she actually did recall them”.The lawyer is also said to have “instructed the client about a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump, [saying]: ‘No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.’”When the client asked who was paying the lawyer, the report says, the lawyer said: “We’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now.”01:42The client was also reportedly “offered potential employment that would make her ‘financially very comfortable’ … by entities apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates. Such offers were withdrawn or did not materialise as reports of the content of her testimony circulated. The client believed this was an effort to affect her testimony.”The client appears to be Cassidy Hutchinson, the former Trump and Meadows aide whose testimony lit up a public hearing in June.The panel also says Secret Service agents chose to be represented by private counsel rather than agency lawyers who would have worked free of charge. Such behavior raised concerns that lawyers “receiving such payments have specific incentives to defend President Trump rather than zealously represent their own clients”.The report adds that the US Department of Justice and the Fulton county district attorney, investigating election subversion in Georgia, “have been provided with certain information related to this topic”.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackUS politicsUS CongressHouse of RepresentativesRepublicansDemocratsexplainersReuse this content More

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      House January 6 panel found Trump lawyers tried to influence witnesses

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      House January 6 panel found Trump lawyers tried to influence witnessesIn addition to offering lucrative jobs, attorneys connected to ex-president also told them it was OK to lie to investigators The House January 6 committee has discovered that lawyers connected to Donald Trump sought to influence witnesses with job offers and advice including that it was OK to lie to investigators.In an opening statement in Monday’s final hearing on Capitol Hill, Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, said: “We are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee in finding the truth.”House January 6 panel recommends criminal charges against Donald TrumpRead moreLofgren was outlining findings detailed in the committee’s report into the attack on the US Capitol in Washington DC, which was released on Monday after a final hearing in which the committee voted to make four criminal referrals of the former US president and his associates to the justice department.She said: “The committee found that Mr Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars with false representations made to his online donors.“Proceeds from his fundraising we have learned have been used in ways that we believe are concerning. In particular, the committee has learned that some of those funds were used to hire lawyers. We have also obtained evidence of efforts to provide or offer employment to witnesses.“For example, one lawyer told the witness the witness could in certain circumstances tell the committee that she didn’t recall facts, when she actually did.”The committee report says the lawyer also “instructed the client about a particular issue that would cast a bad light on President Trump”, saying: “No, no, no, no, no. We don’t want to go there. We don’t want to talk about that.”Lofgren continued: “That lawyer also did not disclose who was paying for the lawyer’s representation, despite questions from the client seeking that information. He told her, ‘We’re not telling people where funding is coming from right now.’”Efforts to contact and influence witnesses have been mentioned by committee members before, around an appearance by Cassidy Hutchinson, a former aide to Trump and his last chief of staff, Mark Meadows, which contained some of the most dramatic testimony of all.Lofgren said: “We’ve learned that a client was offered potential employment that would make her quote ‘financially very comfortable’. As the date of her testimony approached, by entities that were apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates, these offers were withdrawn or didn’t materialise.“As reports of the content of her testimony circulated, the witness believed this was an effort to perfect her testimony. We are concerned that these efforts may have been a strategy to prevent the committee from finding the truth.”TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsDonald TrumpUS Capitol attackUS politicsLaw (US)newsReuse this content More

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      A very American coup attempt: Jan 6 panel lays bare Trump’s bid for power

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      A very American coup attempt: Jan 6 panel lays bare Trump’s bid for powerExecutive summary of report released by House panel investigating January 6 details a failed self-coup It was, all in all, a very American attempt at a coup. Or self-coup to be exact.The world watched its denouement dumbfounded on 6 January 2021 as thousands of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the heart of US democracy, the Capitol in Washington, with cries to hang the vice-president, in an attempt to overturn an election and keep Trump in power.From Liz Cheney to Donald Trump: winners and losers from the January 6 hearingsRead moreBut, as the detailed executive summary of the report released by the congressional committee investigating the insurrection lays bare, Trump’s bid to usurp power began while the votes from the November 2020 presidential election were still being counted.That kicked off what amounted to a rolling coup attempt as an increasingly desperate president sought to compromise and corrupt officials from the US justice department to state election boards in an effort to find a way, any way, to have his defeat declared null and void.The seeds were sown by Trump as he watched the results roll in on election night. The president’s own campaign manager, Bill Stepien, had told him that the way the count was conducted in several states meant that early results were likely to give Trump the lead but that would be eroded as absentee and other postal votes were tallied.The count panned out as Stepien predicted and Trump’s aides cautioned the president that, for all his euphoria at the prospect of pulling off another astonishing upset, it was way too soon to be declaring victory. But all Trump saw was his numbers go up and then down. He brushed off his advisers and went on television.“This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. We did win this election,” he declared.The following morning, Trump inevitably used Twitter to demand that the results already declared, and showing him ahead, be frozen: “STOP THE COUNT!”The report notes that almost none of Trump’s aides supported his claims, with the exception of the increasingly erratic former New York mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. But that fed the narrative pushed by the president and his supporters that he was the victim of an establishment conspiracy.By the time the electoral college met on 14 December to cast and certify each state’s votes, many of Trump’s senior staff, cabinet secretaries and even members of his family, were pressing him to admit defeat. The president preferred to listen to Giuliani’s conspiratorial claims that the voting machines were rigged and suitcases of fake ballots had been used to tip the result against him.As Trump grew more desperate, he pressured Republican officials in key swing states he had lost to overturn the results. In early January, he called Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to demand he “find 11,780 votes” to reverse Joe Biden’s crucial victory in the state.“Trump also made a thinly veiled threat to Raffensperger and his attorney about his failure to respond to Trump’s demands: ‘That’s a criminal, that’s a criminal offense … That’s a big risk to you and to Ryan, your lawyer … I’m notifying you that you’re letting it happen,’” the report said.In Arizona, Trump targeted the Republican speaker of the state legislature, Russell “Rusty” Bowers. The president and Giuliani repeatedly called or met with Bowers to claim that Arizona’s results were fraudulent and to press him to replace the state’s members of the electoral college with ones who would vote for Trump.Bowers told Giuliani: “You are asking me do something against my oath, and I will not break my oath.”Trump exerted similar pressure on officials in Michigan, which he had won in 2016 but lost four years later.The president was pursuing a parallel track with the US justice department. The attorney general, William Barr, grew so exasperated with Trump’s actions that he resigned. The president called or met with Barr’s replacement, Jeff Rosen, nearly every day of the following weeks in an attempt to pressure the justice department “to find factual support for his stolen election claims and thereby to assist his efforts to reverse election results”, according to the report.When Rosen repeatedly told Trump that there was no evidence for the allegations, Trump replied: “Just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and the Republican congressmen.”When this didn’t fly either, Trump turned to those he could always trust: the men and women in the red Make America Great Again caps. As he saw it, the “deep state” was working to rob him of his rightful victory. Trump would count on the people to save him.And so the president summoned the faithful to Washington for a rally on January 6, the day his vice-president, Mike Pence, was to preside over a joint meeting of both houses of Congress to count and approve the electoral college votes, a routine affair for much of the US’s existence.Trump’s efforts to pressure states to withhold their tallies in the hope of delaying the endorsement of Biden’s victory had come to naught and a wave of court challenges to the results failed. Pence made clear to Trump that he would fulfil his duty and that the president’s days in the White House were numbered.Trump told the world a different story. On the evening of 5 January, he released a statement falsely claiming that his vice-president was “in total agreement” with him that Pence had the power to prevent endorsement of the results by “sending them back” to the states.In the early hours of the following morning, Trump tweeted: “If Vice President @Mike_Pence comes through for us, we will win the Presidency. Many States want to decertify the mistake they made in certifying incorrect & even fraudulent numbers in a process NOT approved by their State Legislatures (which it must be). Mike can send it back!”Pence did not agree and, astonishingly, refused to take his own president’s call on the morning of the rally. When Trump finally reached his vice-president by phone, the president called him “a wimp” for refusing to block Congress from approving Biden’s victory.The crowd that arrived for the Washington rally was already stoked by weeks of Trump’s tweets and conspiratorial claims bolstered by Fox News and other rightwing broadcasters. The committee’s report noted that far-right militia groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Three Percenters were also instrumental in spreading the false claims of fraud.“President Trump’s supporters believed the election was stolen because they listened to his words, and they knew what he had called them to do; stop the certification of the electoral count,” the report said.It noted that supporters tweeted messages ahead of the rally predicting what would happen.“IF TRUMP TELLS US TO STORM THE FUKIN CAPITAL IMA DO THAT THEN!” said one.Others circulated flyers proclaiming “#OccupyCongress” over images of the Capitol.The report records that the intelligence services had wind of all of this, and warned the president and his staff. Some of Trump’s aides urged him to make a public statement disavowing violence.The president refused. His speech on January 6 instead made clear who he regarded as the real villain of the moment.As the congressional report recorded, Trump told the assembled crowd: “Mike Pence, I hope you’re going to stand up for the good of our Constitution and for the good of our country.” The president added a veiled threat: “If you’re not, I’m going to be very disappointed in you. I will tell you right now. I’m not hearing good stories.”The report records the reaction of Trump supporters at the rally.“I’m telling you, if Pence caved, we’re going to drag motherfuckers through the streets. You fucking politicians are going to get fucking drug through the streets,” said one.And then the mob headed Pence’s way.The report concluded that the Proud Boys militia led the attack on Congress.“Multiple Proud Boys reacted immediately to President Trump’s December 19th tweet and began their planning,” it said.Someone erected an imitation gallows in front of the Capitol. As the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence”, the vice-president fled his office near the Senate chamber but refused to leave the building. The protesters passed within 40ft.Pence was not the only target. The report records that one woman was looking for the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, “to shoot her in the frigging brain”.By the time the crowd broke through the barriers around the Capitol, beating police officers with flag poles and smashing their way into the corridors of Congress, Trump was back in the White House.Alarmed aides pleaded with him to make a call to stop the violence. Trump instead sent out yet another tweet denouncing Pence for failing to overturn the election result.Finally, he was pressured into acting.“As the evidence demonstrates, the rioters at the Capitol had invaded the building and halted the electoral count. They did not begin to relent until President Trump finally issued a video statement instructing his supporters to leave the Capitol at 4:17 p.m., which had an immediate and helpful effect: rioters began to disperse,” the report said.The self-coup had failed. Biden’s election win would be certified.TopicsJanuary 6 hearingsUS Capitol attackHouse of RepresentativesDonald TrumpUS politicsfeaturesReuse this content More