The US Congressional House of Representatives has claimed that Donald Trump criminally participated in a “multi-party conspiracy” to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to prevent his supporters from attacking the Capitol. In addition, he recommended that to prevent a similar episode, the former president should not run again as a candidate. This was stated in the final report of the “January 6” commission after an 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection two years ago in Washington D.C.
The more than 800-page report was published yesterday and released after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and collected millions of pages of documents. Witnesses detailed the former president’s actions in the weeks leading up to the insurrection and how his pressure campaign to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who tried to take the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“The central cause of January 6 was one man: former President Donald Trump, who was followed by many others,” the report states, adding: “None of the events of January 6 would have happened without him.” The insurrection seriously threatened democracy and “endangered the lives of US lawmakers,” the nine-member panel concluded.
The report’s eight concluding chapters tell the story much as the panel’s hearings this summer did, outlining facets of the plan Trump and his advisers devised to try to undo President Joe Biden’s victory. . The lawmakers describe the then-president’s pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to circumvent the system or break the law.
“Trump’s repeated and false claims of widespread voter fraud resonated with his supporters,” the commission said, and were amplified on social media, tapping into mistrust of the government he had fostered during his four years in office. . And he did very little to stop them when they resorted to violence and stormed the Capitol.
The damning report was released as Trump tries to return to the presidency and faces multiple federal investigations, including inquiries into his role in the insurrection and the presence of confidential documents at his Florida estate. This week a House committee is expected to make their tax returns public. In addition, Republicans have blamed Trump for a worse-than-expected result in the midterm elections, leaving him in his most politically vulnerable state since the 2016 election.
Supporters of then US President Donald Trump gather near the Capitol
The report is also a final act for House Democrats, who cede control of the legislature to Republicans in less than two weeks, and who have spent much of their four years in power investigating Trump. The ruling party impeached Trump twice, the second time a week after the insurrection. On both occasions he was acquitted by the Senate. Other Democratic-led inquiries looked into his finances, his business, his foreign ties and his family.
On the other hand, the report makes some recommendations to prevent a situation like the one experienced on January 6, 2021 from happening again. Among them, that Trump stay away from the office of president. The report notes that the 14th Amendment allows people who “participated in an insurrection” or provided “aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution” to be barred from office.
It also establishes that there should be a reform to the Electoral Count Law to prevent the vice president from rejecting electoral lists in the different states; the full expansion of canvassing and the designation of the electoral vote count by Congress every four years as a “Special National Security Event,” as are inaugurations and State of the Union addresses.