“I hold Donald Trump 100% responsible for what happened on January 6, 2021, him and everyone who protected him and continue to protect him.” A year after the assault on the Capitol by pro-Trump, the companion of a police officer killed in the violence implicated the former US president during an interview with the PBS channel *. “He should be in jail”, threw Sandra Garza. Yet no investigation has so far established the Republican’s responsibility for the attack aimed at preventing Congress from certifying the victory of his rival, Joe Biden, in the presidential election.
Donald Trump was acquitted by the Republican-majority Senate in February 2021, following impeachment proceedings for “calling for insurgency”. But the former president is not out of the woods so far. In the speech he will deliver on Thursday, January 6 to commemorate the assault on the Capitol, Joe Biden intends to clearly denounce the “responsibility” of its predecessor in this “chaos”. “The tragic crowning achievement of what four years of Trump’s presidency has done to this country”, estimates the White House, while a parliamentary investigation, launched in parallel with the monumental investigation carried out by the FBI, still hopes to determine its possible faults in the attack which left five dead.
Originally, Democrats wanted it to be led by an independent bipartisan commission, similar to the one that had worked on the 9/11 attacks, recall Les Jours (subscribers article). In a very polarized country, the support of the Republicans would have made it possible to give even more weight to the conclusions of the investigation. But that was without counting on the Conservatives’ refusal to question their outgoing president.
In June, the Democratic boss of the House of Representatives announced the creation of a special commission of inquiry, ultimately counting only two Republicans. “We can either be loyal to Donald Trump or loyal to the Constitution, but we can’t do both,” justified one of them, Representative Liz Cheney *. Through the letters rogatory and hearings, elected officials collected more than 35,000 documents retracing the assault and the weeks leading up to it. “They are trying to establish to what extent this insurgency was planned”, explains to franceinfo Steven R. Ekovich, professor of political science at the American University of Paris.
“The goal is also to gather information on the financing of the demonstration which preceded the assault and on the possible responsibility of the White House or other close to Donald Trump in Washington.”
Steven R. Ekovich, political scientistto franceinfo
Initial documents have revealed the efforts of the former head of state and his relatives to discredit the results of the presidential election. One “strategic communication plan” established by his team details how “inspire citizens to pressure members of Congress (…) to ignore the fraudulent election results and certify Donald Trump’s victory”, report it New York Times *.
The special committee also discovered, among 9,000 documents submitted by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, a PowerPoint document detailing the “options” to allow the billionaire to retain power despite his defeat. Clearly, different scenarios to carry out a “Rebellion”, accuse him Guardian*. Among the suggested avenues: the declaration of a state of emergency by the president or the invalidation of the results of certain states by the vice-president, Mike Pence, responsible for chairing the certification vote in Congress.
Faced with the refusal of his number 2 to deal such a blow to the Constitution, Donald Trump has decided to continue to put pressure on Mike Pence, publicly this time. On January 6, 2021, when Congress was in session a few hundred yards away, the president participated in a demonstration bringing together 40,000 of his supporters in Washington. “Ihope Mike will do what he has to do “, he said before inviting the crowd to walk towards the Capitol.
Despite numerous alerts sent to the police in the previous days *, warning of a risk of violence in Washington, the Capitol police had not sufficiently reinforced its staff. Its agents were quickly overwhelmed by pro-Trump activists, who entered the precincts of Congress. Donald Trump, he returned to lock himself in the White House.
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What did the former US president do during the three hours that passed before he called his supporters for calm? This is another central question posed by the parliamentary inquiry which highlights the extent of its inaction. According to Washington post*, the billionaire followed the violence live on White House television.
Several text messages received by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, attest that presenters at the conservative Fox News channel, politicians and elected officials trapped inside Congress have asked the White House to intervene to end the violence. “He has to condemn this shit ASAP”, even wrote one of the sons of the head of state, Donald Trump Junior, to Mark Meadows. “We need a speech from the Oval Office. (…) It has gone too far.”
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But it was only after 187 minutes that Donald Trump finally posted a video on Twitter, asking his supporters to “go back home”. One hundred and eighty-seven minutes during which “a press photographer was dragged down the stairs”, 138 police officers were injured, elected officials terrorized and “the office of the President of the House ransacked “, list it Washington Post.
“He is totally unusual for anyone in charge to watch these events unfold without doing anything. “, denounced the chairman of the special commission in an interview with CNN * at the end of December. “Several items could potentially be the subject of legal action, but I believe there is no doubt that there was a dereliction of duty.” on the part of the former American president, echoed Republican Liz Cheney *.
However, the game is far from won for the special commission. In the fall, Mark Meadows ceased to cooperate with the investigation and refused to testify before parliamentarians, facing up to a year in prison for “attempting to obstruct a congressional investigation”. According to Guardian*, several other former Donald Trump collaborators have made multiple attempts to slow down the investigation (and protect themselves, in the process, from possible prosecution).
The billionaire has filed legal proceedings to prevent the commission from accessing the White House archives, which record the details of its activities on January 6. Two courts have already dismissed it, considering that this request had no legal basis and the case is now before the Supreme Court. “We are waiting to know the decision of the highest court in the country, where Donald Trump has appointed several conservatives. But it would be surprising for the Supreme Court to go against the other two courts”, advance with franceinfo Lauric Henneton, Lecturer at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.
“What is apparent is that if the ex-president insists so strongly that the documents not be handed over to the committee, it must not be flattering for his own account.”
Lauric Henneton, historianto franceinfo
The Republican’s objective is above all to save time. “Even if his appeals are unsuccessful, they slow down the process: every time he sues, it delays the production of documents”, notes Steven R. Ekovich. There is no guarantee that the commission will complete its investigation before the midterm elections (midterms), in early November, which the Republicans appear to be in a position to win. In case of victory in the House of Representatives, the GOP could end the investigation. It is therefore a real race against the clock that has started in Washington.
The commission intends to deliver a first report on the assault this summer, specifies the Washington Post *. She already warned that she was considering make recommendations to the federal prosecutor’s office with a view to possible criminal prosecution, while more than 700 activists have been indicted and 70 have been convicted. The Minister of Justice also promised on Wednesday that all those involved in the assault would be prosecuted “whatever their status”. The parliamentary inquiry “also aims to prevent this violence from happening again, and therefore to put in place new legislation”, recalls Lauric Henneton.
“One of the things the commission needs to look at, in terms of legislation, is whether we need to toughen the penalties for this type of dereliction of duty.”
Liz Cheney, Republican vice-chair of the commission of inquiryon the American channel ABC
Through this investigation, the Democrats hope above all to respond to the conspiratorial discourse and false information relayed by pro-Trump activists since the day of the presidential election. “The objective is to document the facts and above all to establish the authoritative account of the course of this day of January 6, Lauric Henneton analysis. Because thehe United States is today plunged into a battle of narratives between the Trumpists, who have their own reality, and the others. “
* These links refer to articles or content in English.