This is the end of a vast public inquiry. On Monday, the House of Representatives special committee responsible for shedding light on the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 by supporters of the former president and populist, Donald Trump, is to hold its final public hearing in Washington, before submitting its final report on Wednesday.
A bipartisan political exercise, followed closely in Washington, which, after a year and a half of private and public hearings, the collection of 35,000 documents, the hearing of more than 300 witnesses, ended up revealing the mechanics of this insurrection waged against the dome of American democracy. He also identified the key actors in this tragedy who could face justice. Back on its main discoveries and its possible consequences.
A multi-pronged strategy to overturn the elections
The Jan. 6 uprising was more than an angry mob after Donald Trump’s defeat. It was indeed the component of a complex scheme aimed at compromising American democratic institutions, by preventing the certification of the vote in favor of Joe Biden, to keep the populist in the White House. By conspiracy and against the will of the ballot box.
The coup attempt was partly orchestrated by a group of lawyers in the pay of the ex-president, including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman or Sidney Powell who sought to make “false voters” appear in several Key states for the benefit of Trump. In addition to pressuring officials, the group was also considering seizing voting machines after claiming, without proof, that they had been hacked.
Pat Cipollone, White House adviser at the time, told the committee that these Trump loyalists, these “rogue lawyers,” had “complete disregard for the importance of backing up what you say with facts “.
More worryingly, the committee has in its possession more than 2,000 text messages confirming that Mark Meadows, Donald Trump’s chief of staff at the time, had discussions with numerous elected Republicans in the aftermath of the populist’s defeat. Together, they then sought, without beating around the bush, a legal way to overturn the election result, Talking Points Memo recently reported. Several of these deputies were re-elected last November.
Trump knew there was no voter fraud
While claiming the opposite – even today, more than two years after his defeat – Donald Trump knew very well that the 2020 election was not illegal, and this, because more than a dozen people, well acquainted with the conduct of the elections, enlightened him personally on the integrity of the electoral process and on the fragility of the arguments denouncing fraud.
“I made it clear that I did not agree with the idea of saying that the election was stolen and of publishing this kind of thing, exposed the ex-minister of Justice Bill Barr, in front of the committee. I told the president that [la fraude] it was bullshit. »
The populist’s own daughter, Ivanka, also admitted during her videoconference hearing that she had no problem agreeing with the facts presented by Mr Barr which “changed [sa] perspective” on the alternate reality promoted by her father, she said.
Trump Knew Protesters Were Armed, But He Tossed Them On Capitol Hill Anyway
On the sixth day of the hearings, the former White House aide, Cassidy Hutchinson, delivered a series of explosive testimonies by revealing, among other things, that the ex-president had been made aware by the secret services of the presence armed demonstrators in the crowd on January 6. It was just before he launched that same mob against the seat of the American legislature, in order to prevent elected officials from confirming the election of Joe Biden to the White House.
“I heard the president say something like, ‘I don’t care if they have guns. They are not here to hurt me,” she said.
According to her, Donald Trump had been personally informed of the presence among the insurgents of paramilitary and supremacist groups. “I remember hearing the words ‘Oath Keeper’ and hearing the word ‘Proud Boys’ while planning the January 6 rally,” while Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows were present with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, a- she told the committee.
These two groups have been the target of the FBI since January 6, 2021. Several of their members have also been prosecuted and some, including the boss of the Oath Keeper, Stewart Rhodes, convicted for their participation in this riot and for “seditious plot” .
Ex-president’s team gloated about inflaming Trump supporters
Last October, documents collected by the committee from the American secret services, including exchanges of text messages, made it possible to establish that the police knew as early as December that violence was mounting among Republican supporters. , a climate that normally should have worried the White House. However, the populist’s communications adviser, Jason Miller, was rather happy about it in the days preceding the attack. “I set fire to the base [électoral de l’ex-président] “, he boasted in an exchange dated December 30 with the chief of staff of the White House at the time, Mark Meadows.
Prior to Jan. 6, calls for murder targeting Vice President Mike Pence, who is in charge of presiding over the vote certification ceremony, were also circulating online, calling for nooh 2 of the American executive power “a dead man”, if he did not follow the calls launched by the team of Trump to reverse the poll.
“I thought January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history, and President Trump was treating it as an occasion to celebrate,” the ex-Trump told the committee. – White House staffer Sarah Matthews.
And the Board of Inquiry could recommend criminal prosecution…
On the eve of the unveiling of the committee’s final report, it is still unclear whether the group of elected officials will recommend that criminal charges be filed against the former president. Donald Trump has however been described by the group of elected officials as the central element of this vast scheme aimed at challenging American democracy to steal victory from the Democrats.
The ex-president refused to appear before the committee, despite being summoned, thus facing a possible charge of contempt of Congress.
The group could also press the United States Department of Justice to hold several members of the populist’s inner circle, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, criminally responsible for his role in planning the widely publicized insurgency. documented by the survey. Lawyer John Eastman, who theorized the coup in a memo before Jan. 6, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani for promoting the voter fraud lie, and Jeffrey Clark, a high-ranking Ministry of Justice who would have participated in this conspiracy, could also be part of it.
Ironically, Mr. Clark appeared before the committee, but refused to answer questions from elected officials, pleading the 5e amendment, which allows a US citizen not to testify so as not to incriminate themselves.
Mark Meadows and Rudy Giuliani, for their part, sought to obtain a preventive pardon for their contribution to the insurrection, before the former president left the White House. This was confirmed by Cassidy Hutchinson in front of elected officials, while recounting conversations she witnessed in the Oval Office.