The House Committee investigating Donald Trump’s role in the assault on the capitol
voted Thursday for subpoena former US president to appear before its members. The nine members of the commission – seven Democrats and two Republicans – voted unanimously for Donald Trump to testify under oath on the events of January 6, which were intended to prevent Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election. “He is the person who is at the heart of what happened on January 6th. So we want to hear it“, said the Democratic chairman of the commission, Bennie Thompson. “He must be accountable. He is held to answer for his actions”, he added.
“Premeditated plan”
But it is also for the commission to “do everything she can to tell the fullest story possible and provide recommendations to help ensure nothing like January 6 happens again in the future“, he continued. Parliamentarians are responsible for shed light on the behavior of the president before, during and after the attack on the Capitol, which had shocked the whole 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. The billionaire continues to maintain against all evidence that the ballot was given to him “Fly”. Thursday, before its shock announcement, the commission had unrolled the thread of events as drawn by its investigations, showing that the ex-president had planned “well in advance” to declare victory in the 2020 election, even before the results are known. “His intention was clear, ignore the rule of law and stay in power,” hammered Republican Adam Kinzinger.
“His intention was clear, ignore the rule of law and stay in power”
The elected democrat Zoe Lofgren evoked “a premeditated plan of the president to declare victory, regardless of the actual outcome”. His victory speech”was planned well in advance, before the votes were counted”, she added. 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.
“Let’s go 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 throws.
Mr Stone, who has not been charged in connection with January 6, disputed the authenticity of the videos, saying they had been manipulated. The commission also played back a recording of a call from Donald Trump to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which the former president said he “need” of some 11,000 ballots in his name – enough to beat his rival Joe Biden in this southern state.
The commission also unveiled elements from hundreds of thousands of pages provided by the Secret Service, the elite police in charge of the close protection of the high personalities of the State. The elected officials want to understand why certain SMS from agents sent on the day of the assault have been deleted. The documents confirm evidence presented at previous hearings, according to which Mr. Trump has inflamed the crowd of his supporters despite being told of the potential for violence, said lawmaker Adam Schiff. 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. Members of the panel have openly suggested that Justice Secretary Merrick Garland should indict Donald Trump in connection with the attack on the Capitol. The commission itself has not officially said whether it will recommend referrals to justice.