Time concordance. As the Watergate scandal — which brought down Richard Nixon — is currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, one of the prosecutors who worked on this spectacular legal case targeting an American president believes that another President of the United States should now be prosecuted and thrown in jail: Donald Trump.
According to Nick Akerman – that’s his name – the parliamentary commission in charge of investigating the attack on the Capitol has brought to light, for more than two weeks of public hearings, “enough” evidence for the populist to be sued in court, particularly in relation to his attempt to steal Georgia’s Democratic vote to illegally stay in power.
“If I had to bet on a cause that could lead Donald Trump to prison, it would be this one,” said the ex-lawyer, a member of the Watergate Special Prosecution Force in the 1970s, a few days ago, on the waves of MSNBC.
On Tuesday, on the fourth day of its public hearings, the commission of inquiry into the insurrection of January 6, 2021 and the conspiracy that fueled this unprecedented attack on American democracy also recalled the existence of the appeal compromising phone call at the root of this whole affair.
Donald Trump was then seeking to convince Brad Raffensperger, Secretary of State of Georgia, to “find” 11,780 votes in favor of the populist to “reverse” the counting of the ballot boxes, which had nevertheless confirmed Joe Biden’s victory for several weeks. A blatant incitement to commit electoral fraud, formulated by a president in office, but to which the local elected official has never yielded. Despite relentless pressure from the former president and his entourage.
“Numbers are numbers, and we couldn’t recount [les bulletins] because we made sure we checked every allegation” of fraud made without proof by the Republican camp, Raffensperger told the commission. “There was no ballot to be found, the count was correct, and it was certified. »
“Trump committed a crime punishable by three years in prison in Georgia”, exposed Nick Akerman, recalling that “Prosecutors love tape-recorded evidence because you can’t cross-examine it”. During the Watergate era, Republicans stopped supporting Nixon after the discovery of audio recordings, the famous ” White House Tapes making it difficult to conceal the crime.
“Donald Trump has no defense in Georgia,” added the former prosecutor.
more and more guilty
On the eve of a fifth public hearing, to be held Thursday in Washington, more and more Americans believe, like the ex-Watergate prosecutor, that Donald Trump should be held criminally responsible for the attack against the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and criminally charged for his “attempted coup”. It is 58% of people questioned on June 17 and 18 by Ipsos on behalf of the ABC network who have just said so. This is a jump of six points from last May.
And this heavy fire against the populist now has a large number of ammunition placed by the Commission of Inquiry in the magazines.
“The information revealed during the congressional hearing on the January 6, 2021 riot could form the basis of a criminal investigation by the United States Department of Justice against former President Donald Trump”, can we read in the pages of the magazine of the American Bar Association, which draws up a list of the possible and numerous crimes committed by the populist to remain in office against the will of the American electorate.
Among them, the obstruction of an official procedure to prevent the certification of the vote on January 6, 2021 by the American senators. The commission has also exposed over the past few days how Donald Trump and his entourage have tried to put pressure on ex-vice president Mike Pence to block the legislative process he was supposed to chair.
By also highlighting the fact that the ex-president knew, or could not ignore, that he had lost the elections, but that he nevertheless continued to mobilize his troops to invalidate the results of the vote, this committee reinforced with multiple testimonies of possible charges of “conspiracy to defraud the United States” and seditious conspiracy.
Let us recall that the plan drawn up by Donald Trump’s counsel, John Eastman, and which the Commission of Inquiry carried out the autopsy last week, was described last March by a California judge as “obviously fraudulent”. Judge David Carter also added that it was more “likely than not” that Trump and Eastman had “dishonestly conspired” to obstruct the certification of the vote.
Last Sunday, one of the rare Republicans sitting on the commission of inquiry, Adam Kinzinger, representative of Illinois, said he also believed in a criminal implication of the ex-president in the attack on the Capitol, which, according to him , does indeed represent “a seditious conspiracy,” he said on ABC. “The president knew what he was doing. […]. What we are presenting to the American people “raises Donald Trump’s level of guilt, he said in substance.
“A big scam”
Just as damning: by launching appeals for donations after the election, and this, by evoking a fund for the defense of the electoral process which never existed — this is what the commission established —, the team of Donald Trump and the ex-president, who raised more than $250 million this way, could now face charges of “electronic fraud” and deception.
The “big lie” was also “a big scam”, summed up Democrat Zoe Lofgren, representative of California and member of this commission of inquiry, on the second day of public hearings. “The average donation was less than $20,” she pointed out. “These were donors who were not rich, but they responded [aux] calls [de Donald Trump], which were fraudulent. And I don’t think that’s fair.”
Currently, there is no indication that the US Department of Justice has launched an official investigation to bring charges against the former US president. At most, at the start of the Commission’s public works, the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick Garland, indicated that he and his team would follow all of the public hearings. Without further details.
The pressure is strong on Mr. Garland, however, as the work of the commission now exposes raw and disturbing truths about the intentions and the schemes developed by Donald Trump to stay in office and thus avoid a peaceful transfer of power, overnight. of his defeat.
And under the circumstances, the lack of prosecution could come as a shock to Americans. Rightly so, says Jack Goldsmith, former attorney at the Department of Justice under George W. Bush. “Failure to charge Mr. Trump in this context would imply that a president — who cannot be charged while in office — is literally above the law,” he wrote recently in the pages of the New York Times. This could encourage feelings of impunity among future US presidents, including Donald Trump if he were to be re-elected in the next election. »