WASHINGTON | In a “historic” move, the Capitol Assault Inquiry Committee cited former President Donald Trump on Friday to appear “on or around November 14.”
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The Republican billionaire will also have to produce a whole series of documents before November 4 under this summons, the principle of which was recorded last week.
After a televised hearing, the House of Representatives committee, responsible for shedding light on Donald Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021 attack, created a surprise by voting unanimously to convene the former president.
The one who openly flirts with the idea of representing himself in 2024 immediately renewed his attacks against an investigation described as a “fiasco”, without revealing how he was going to respond.
“Like any request of this type, we will review and evaluate it, and we will respond appropriately to this unprecedented action,” commented for his part Friday evening David Warrington, one of Mr. Trump in this case, without confirming whether they had received the subpoena.
“It would be logical” for him to comply with this request, said his Democratic successor Joe Biden on the MSNBC channel
The commission’s panel, made up of seven elected Democrats and two Republicans, has already questioned more than a thousand witnesses, including two children of Donald Trump, and gone through tens of thousands of documents but has come up against a refusal to cooperate. of certain relatives.
Former adviser Steve Bannon, considered to be the architect of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, was also sentenced on Friday to four months in prison for refusing to respond to his summons.
“Bloody”
The commission is engaged in a race against time: if the Democrats lose control of Congress in the midterm elections on November 8, it risks being dissolved by the new Republican majority.
Its two leaders, elected Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, therefore formally summoned Donald Trump in just three weeks.
“We recognize that subpoenaing a former president is an important and historic action and we do not take it lightly,” they wrote to him.
But, they added, “we have evidence that you personally orchestrated and supervised a campaign to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power”, and it resulted “in a bloody attack on the Capitol”.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of supporters of Donald Trump convinced by his allegations of “election fraud” had sown chaos in the temple of American democracy, when elected officials certified the victory of his Democratic rival Joe Biden.
The Republican, who had urged his supporters to “fight like the devils”, was immediately impeached in Congress, but was acquitted thanks to his party’s senators.
This did not end the case: in its final report, the commission could recommend that he be indicted. The decision will ultimately rest with the Minister of Justice Merrick Garland, a prudent and methodical man who “excludes nothing”.
“Respect”
In the meantime, justice has inflicted a snub on one of its close allies, Steve Bannon, by condemning him to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine for “obstructing” the investigative prerogatives of Congress.
“Respecting Congress is an important component of our constitutional system,” justified magistrate Carl Nichols, pointing out that Steve Bannon had, to date, always produced “no document, nor delivered any testimony” to the commission.
This 68-year-old man, a figure of right-wing populism in the United States, immediately announced his intention to appeal, which suspends the application of the sentence.
He was therefore able to emerge free from the federal court in Washington. In front of the cameras, he assured “to respect the judge’s decision” but immediately slipped into political territory.
“November 8 will be the day of judgment for the illegitimate regime of (Joe) Biden (…) and we know how it will end,” he said, while predicting the electoral defeat of several members of the January 6 commission.