(Washington) The House Committee investigating Donald Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol made the shocking announcement Thursday that it would be subpoenaing the former president, because “he is required to answer for his actions”, according to his leader.
Posted at 1:28 p.m.
Updated at 4:16 p.m.
Will the Republican billionaire comply with the summons? He didn’t say so in his first reaction to the news, but he strongly denounced the elected officials.
Why didn’t the commission “call me to testify months ago?” Why did they wait until the very end, until the last moments of their last meeting? Because the commission is a total FIASCO that has only served to further divide our country,” he wrote on his Truth Social social network.
Earlier, the panel voted unanimously to subpoena him.
Donald Trump “is THE person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th. So we want to hear it, ”said its president, Bennie Thompson, during a public hearing.
“He has to be accountable. He is held accountable for his actions,” he added.
But it’s also about the commission “doing everything it can to tell the fullest story possible and provide recommendations to help ensure nothing like January 6 happens again in the future.” future,” he continued.
“Ignoring the rule of law”
The mission of the panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, is to shed light on the behavior of the president before, during and after the attack on Capitol Hill, which shocked the world.
On that day, January 6, 2021, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the seat of Congress to try to prevent elected officials from certifying the victory of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Mr. Trump continues to argue against all evidence that the ballot was “stolen” from him.
During Thursday’s hearing, the commission unfolded the thread of events as drawn by its investigations, showing that the ex-president had planned “well in advance” to declare himself victorious in the 2020 election, before even if the results are not known.
“His intention was clear, ignore the rule of law and stay in power,” insisted Republican Adam Kinzinger.
The elected democrat Zoe Lofgren she evoked “a premeditated plan of the president to declare his victory, whatever was the true result”.
In support of their statements, the elected officials projected several videos of the ex-president, some of his relatives or former employees of the White House.
“Straight to Violence”
In images shot just before the 2020 presidential election by a Danish team for a documentary, we can hear Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former Republican president, say that he doesn’t care about the vote.
“Fuck the vote, let’s go straight to violence,” he said.
Mr Stone, who has not been charged in connection with January 6, disputed the authenticity of the videos.
The commission also replayed a recording of a call from Donald Trump to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which the ex-president says he “needs” some 11,000 ballots in his name – a enough numbers to beat Joe Biden in this southern state.
She also unveiled elements from hundreds of thousands of pages provided by the Secret Service, the elite police responsible for the close protection of high state officials.
The documents confirm evidence presented at previous hearings that Mr. Trump inflamed the crowd of his supporters despite being told of the potential for violence, lawmaker Adam Schiff said.
In a significant moment, never-before-seen images of Congress officials who had taken refuge in a secure location on January 6 were released. We see the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Chuck Schumer frantically making phone calls for reinforcements from law enforcement.
Since its creation, the commission has questioned more than a thousand witnesses, including two children of Donald Trump, and peeled tens of thousands of documents.
The investigative report is due to be made public by the end of the year, but likely not before the November 8 parliamentary elections that will determine which party will control Congress for the remainder of President Biden’s term.