{"id":24209,"date":"2022-12-20T08:53:58","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T13:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24209"},"modified":"2022-12-20T08:53:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-20T13:53:58","slug":"january-6-committee-recommends-criminal-charges-against-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/20\/january-6-committee-recommends-criminal-charges-against-donald-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"January 6 committee recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The committee investigating the January 6 storming of the US Capitol is recommending criminal charges against former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>They include conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstructing an official proceeding (the certification of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/joe-biden-7848\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Joe Biden<\/a><\/strong>&#8216;s election victory); conspiracy to make a false statement and inciting or assisting an insurrection.<\/p>\n<p>The recommendation is mainly symbolic &#8211; with the US Justice Department responsible for deciding whether or not to prosecute\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/donald-trump-5711\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mr Trump<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>But committee chair, Democrat Bennie Thompson, said: &#8220;We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide the road map to justice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A number of recommendations are made in the final report, which accuses Mr Trump of engaging in a &#8220;multi-part conspiracy&#8221; to overturn the election.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Thompson added: &#8220;We will also show that evidence we&#8217;ve gathered points to further action beyond the power of this committee or the congress to help ensure accountability in the law,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Accountability that can only be found in the criminal justice system.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>&#8216;This can never happen again&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mr Thompson also criticised Mr Trump for &#8220;breaking&#8221; faith in the democratic system: &#8220;If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Describing Mr Trump&#8217;s behaviour on the day of the riots, committee vice chair, Republican Liz Cheney said: &#8220;In addition to being unlawful\u2026 this was an utter moral failure and a clear dereliction of duty.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Evidence of this can be seen in the testimony of President Trump&#8217;s own White House counsel and several other White House witnesses.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No man who would behave that way, at that moment in time, can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is unfit for any office.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ms Cheney said the committee&#8217;s work is only at the beginning, describing it as an &#8220;initial step&#8221; in addressing Mr Trump&#8217;s &#8220;efforts to remain in office illegally&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors are now considering the implications of the conduct described in the committee&#8217;s report, Ms Cheney added.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement Mr Trump said &#8220;these folks don&#8217;t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn&#8217;t kill me makes me stronger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After the committee&#8217;s report was made public, protesters gathered outside the Trump Tower in New York City, waving placards calling for him to be arrested.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump posted on social media site, Truth Social: &#8220;But Liz (Cheney) lost by a record 40 points!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on the radio, he described the committee as a &#8220;kangaroo court&#8221; which failed to recognise the reason why such a huge crowd assembled on January 6th &#8211; maintaining his claims about election fraud.<\/p>\n<p>He insisted he asked for 10,000 troops to be ready on the day in case of protests &#8211; but the committee said it had found no evidence of this.<\/p>\n<p>It also referred to the testimony of Mr Trump&#8217;s then acting secretary of defence, Christopher Miller, who said under oath that there was &#8220;no direct order&#8221; from the President to put 10,000 troops on standby.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump&#8217;s lawyer, John Eastman, said in a statement: &#8220;A criminal &#8216;referral&#8217; from a congressional committee is not binding on the Department of Justice and carries no more legal weight than a &#8216;referral&#8217; from any American citizen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In fact, a &#8216;referral&#8217; from the January 6th committee should carry a great deal less weight due to the absurdly partisan nature of the process that produced it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also accused the committee of &#8220;concocting a pretend &#8216;criminal case&#8217;&#8230;designed to create political advantage for the Democratic Party and stigmatise disfavoured political groups&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Trump&#8217;s daughter &#8216;not forthcoming&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mr Trump&#8217;s daughter, Ivanka, a White House advisor during her father&#8217;s tenure, apparently knew more than she was prepared to divulge, the committee believes.<\/p>\n<p>The report said she was &#8220;not as forthcoming&#8221; as other aides about the former president&#8217;s conduct and showed a &#8220;lack of full recollection of certain issues&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Parts of former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany&#8217;s testimony &#8220;seemed evasive&#8221; and did not seem as forthright as other press office staff, the committee said.<\/p>\n<p>Ex-Trump advisor, Hope Hicks, was also accused of not being forthcoming over whether she told the president he needed to encourage supporters to be peaceful.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>&#8216;A big scam&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mr Trump&#8217;s lawyer,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/topic\/rudy-giuliani-9084\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Rudy Giuliani<\/strong><\/a>, had previously claimed voting machines had flipped votes to President Biden.<\/p>\n<p>However, the committee report alleges that Mr Giuliani admitted during his deposition: &#8220;I do not think the machines stole the election&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Other Trump lawyers and supporters invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when asked to show proof they found the election was stolen.<\/p>\n<p>The committee panel said: &#8220;Not one of them provided evidence raising genuine questions about the election outcome.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In short, it was a big scam&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Giuliani&#8217;s legal representative, Robert Costello, pointed out he had not been referred for prosecution, telling NBC News that the committee&#8217;s referral means &#8220;absolutely nothing to the Department of Justice&#8221; and comparing the committee&#8217;s work to &#8220;political theatre&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Trump &#8216;tried to contact witnesses&#8217;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The committee said it was aware of &#8220;multiple efforts&#8221; by Mr Trump to contact unnamed witnesses during the probe, with the Department of Justice made aware of at least one incident.<\/p>\n<p>Some witnesses were also described as &#8220;unnecessarily combative&#8221; while testifying, with some failing to be credible when pleading ignorance of certain circumstances &#8211; in particular those whose jobs or income were linked to Trump-affiliated organisations.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sky-news-logo-1.png\" alt=\"Sky News\" width=\"100\" height=\"20\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/news.sky.com\/story\/january-6-committee-recommends-criminal-charges-against-donald-trump-12771623\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news.sky.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\">The committee investigating the January 6 storming of the US Capitol is recommending criminal charges against former President Donald Trump. They include conspiracy to defraud the United States; obstructing an official proceeding (the certification of\u00a0Joe <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/20\/january-6-committee-recommends-criminal-charges-against-donald-trump\/\" title=\"January 6 committee recommends criminal charges against Donald Trump\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,2,3],"tags":[285,8567,7547,5032],"class_list":{"0":"post-24209","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headline","8":"category-news","9":"category-usa","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-house-select-january-6th-committee-hearing","12":"tag-us-capitol-riots","13":"tag-us-justice-department","14":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24212,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24209\/revisions\/24212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}