Lawmakers urge criminal charges against Trump in Jan 6 row

The House Committee who was investigating the January 6 insurrection has voted to approve the referral of multiple criminal charges against former US president Donald Trump.

It will be decided by the Justice Department whether to charge Trump, but the congressional investigation with its findings may help the case against the former president.

The final report will release on Wednesday.

According to the panel, Trump was responsible for the insurrection, giving out a trove of evidence for the public and the Justice Department on why he should be prosecuted.

The summary describes in intensive detail how Trump tried to overpower, pressure and cajole anyone who wasn’t willing to help him overturn his election defeat knowing full well that his actions were unlawful. His relentless arm-twisting included election administrators in key states, senior Justice Department leaders, state lawmakers, and others. The report even suggests possible witness tampering with the committee’s investigation.

The House committee lays out a number of criminal statutes it believes were violated in the plots to stave off Trump’s defeat and says there’s evidence for criminal referrals to the Justice Department for Trump, Trump attorney John Eastman and “others.”
The report summary says there’s evidence to pursue Trump on multiple crimes, including obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make false statements, assisting or aiding an insurrection, conspiring to injure or impede an officer and seditious conspiracy.

The committee has said that Trump knew the fraud allegations he was pressing but he amplified them anyways.

The summary also stated that Trump’s decision to declare victory falsely on election night and unlawfully, stop the vote was premediated.

The select committee is referring several Republican lawmakers, who refused to cooperate with the investigation, to the House Ethics Committee.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, as well as Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Andy Biggs of Arizona, could all face possible sanctions for their refusal to comply with committee subpoenas, reported CNN.
“If left unpunished, such behavior undermines Congress’s longstanding power to investigate in support of its lawmaking authority and suggests that Members of Congress may disregard legal obligations that apply to ordinary citizens,” the summary added.