Photo: The Canadian Press
Donald Trump
Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said on Sunday that they had found enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal charge against former President Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. .
The committee announced that Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses scheduled to testify Monday in a hearing that focuses on Trump’s effort to spread his lies about a stolen election.
“I would like the Justice Department to investigate any credible allegations of criminal activity by Donald Trump,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California who is also a member of the committee that chairs the Intelligence Committee. of the House. “There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to cancel the election that I see no evidence that the Department of Justice is investigating.”
The committee held its first public hearing last week, with members exposing their case against Trump to show how the defeated president has steadily pushed his false claims of a rigged election despite several advisers telling him the contrary and how he intensified an extraordinary plan to overturn Joe Biden’s decision. victory.
Additional evidence will be released this week at hearings showing how Trump and some of his advisers made a “massive effort” to spread misinformation, pressured the Justice Department to accept his false claims and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence. to reject state voters and block voting certification on January 6, 2021.
Stepien, a longtime Trump adviser, has kept a relatively low profile compared to many others in the orbit of the former president. He previously served as political director of the White House and also as national campaign director for the 2016 Trump campaign. Prior to joining Trump, Stepien had worked in New Jersey for former Gov. Chris Christie. , a longtime friend of Trump’s turned critic.
Monday’s list of witnesses includes BJay Pak, Atlanta’s chief federal prosecutor, who stepped down on Jan. 4, 2021, a day after an audio recording was released in which Trump called him “never -Trumpper “and Chris Stirewalt, the old man. political editor of Fox News.
On Sunday, committee members also reiterated that they will present clear evidence that “several” Republican lawmakers, including Republican Rep. Scott Perry, had asked Trump for a pardon, which would protect him from prosecution. Perry on Friday denied he had ever done so, calling the statement an “absolute, shameless, soulless lie.”
“We will not make accusations or say things without evidence or evidence to back it up,” said MP Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
Lawmakers indicated that perhaps his most important audience throughout the hearings may be Attorney General Merrick Garland, who must decide whether his department can and should prosecute Trump. They left no doubt as to their own opinion as to whether the evidence is sufficient to continue.
“Once the evidence is accumulated by the Department of Justice, it must make a decision on whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of the president or anyone else,” Schiff said. “But they have to investigate if there’s credible evidence, which I think is.”
Deputy Jamie Raskin, D-Md., Said he did not intend to “upset” Garland, but noted that the committee has already filed in criminal statements criminal statutes that they believe Trump violated.
“I think he knows, his staff knows it, U.S. lawyers know what’s at stake here,” Raskin said. “They know the importance of this, but I think they are rightly paying close attention to the precedents of the story as well as the facts of this case.”
Garland has not specified how he could proceed, which would be unprecedented and could be complicated in a political election season in which Trump has openly flirted with the idea of running for president again.
No president or former president has ever been charged.
Richard Nixon resigned in 1974 when he faced a dismissal and a probable prosecution by the grand jury on charges of bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. President Gerald Ford later pardoned his predecessor before any Watergate-related criminal charges could be filed.
Legal experts have said that a Trump Justice Department prosecution for the riot could set an awkward precedent in which one party administration could more routinely prosecute the former president of another.
“We will follow the facts wherever they take us,” Garland said in his speech at the Harvard University graduation ceremony last month.
A California federal judge said in a March ruling in a civil case that Trump “most likely not” committed federal crimes in an attempt to obstruct Congress from counting Electoral College ballots on January 6, 2021. The judge cited two statutes: obstruction of an official procedure and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Trump has denied all allegations.
The assault on the Capitol left more than 100 policemen wounded, many beaten and bloodied, while the crowd of Trump supporters, some armed with pipes, bats and bear spray, charged against the building. At least nine people were killed during or after the riots, including a woman who was shot dead by police.
Schiff appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Raskin on CNN’s “State of the Union,” and Kinzinger on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”