Former US President Donald Trump said the four-crime charge by the commission investigating the attack on the Capitol strengthens him and accused the panel of trying to prevent him from running for president again.
“These people don’t understand that people who love freedom defend me when they come after me,” the former president wrote in a statement this morning, shared on his social network Truth Social. “It makes me stronger. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
Trump argued that he was trying to send 20,000 troops on January 6 to prevent violence and that he went on television to tell everyone to leave. He spoke of a “Democratic investigative agency” wanting to prevent him from running again “because they know I’m going to win” and that the allegations are “a partisan attempt” to oust him and the Republican party.
At the final public hearing and after an 18-month investigation, the Jan. 6 Committee of Inquiry voted to send the Justice Department a recommendation for prosecution for four crimes it says were committed by Donald Trump: incitement to insurrection, conspiracy to defraud, obstruction of Congress, and misrepresentation.
Reactions to this unprecedented advancement in United States history ranged from those denouncing political motives to those praising the revealed evidence.
“No one is above the law. Not even a former president of the United States,” Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren said.
Portuguese-American Congresswoman Lori Loureiro Trahan also said in a statement that the decision is “proof that the pillars of our democracy are strong” and that there are still members of both parties “willing to honor their oath to the Constitution.” .
But attorney Alan Dershowitz, who represented Donald Trump during the first impeachment, told conservative Newsmax that the commission’s recommendation is “a useless piece of paper.”
“Congress has no authority to recommend charges,” the Harvard professor emeritus noted, saying there is precisely one provision in the Constitution that opposes this. It is a ban on “acquirer’s bills,” or acts of the legislature that declare a party guilty of a crime without going through trial.
Dershowitz argued that, because of the separation of powers, “Congress cannot say who to indict.”
Dick Morris, a former Bill Clinton adviser turned Trump supporter who wrote a book about his 2024 return, characterized the committee’s recommendations as gimmicks and said they were unlikely to be accepted by the Justice Department.
“This is clearly a gimmick and therefore clearly wrong,” he told Newsmax. “To say he fomented an insurgency is just absurd. And it’s clear, as it was under both impeachments, that voters understand that, particularly Republican voters.”
Shelley Moore Capito, who will take on the Republican leadership of the Senate policy committee, also believed the work was “obviously politicized” and had never seen Congress “instruct the Department of Justice in this way” Justice.
On Fox News, conservative jurist Jonathan Turley pointed out that the commission failed to build a strong case in terms of criminal actions and said the panel’s decision was risky because the Justice Department could challenge it.
“This committee promised that new evidence would come. There were some videos we hadn’t seen yet, but there was no direct evidence of any criminal act by the former president,” he said. The lawyer did not find Donald Trump’s behavior criminal, but reckless and reprehensible.
“The problem is that I don’t think convictions based on this evidence would stand up to judicial review,” he continued. “The main problem lies in the accusations based on the president’s speech,” he reflected, saying that the words Trump uttered minutes before the uprising are protected language. “They do not meet the standard set by the Supreme Court for the criminalization of speech.”
Already the leader of the Republican minority of the Senate, Mitch McConnell, reacted with few words to the outcome of the committee’s work, in statements to journalists. “The whole nation knows who is responsible for that day,” he said. “Other than that I have no direct observations.”
Shortly before the decision of the committee, which unanimously recommended the criminal prosecution of Trump, was announced, former Vice President Mike Pence said on Fox News that this would be “terribly divisive for the country” and that this holiday season, people especially want heal the wounds.
“I think the actions and words of the president on January 6 were reckless,” the former ruler said. “But I don’t know if it’s criminal to take bad advice from lawyers, so I hope the Justice Department is careful.”
Rolling Stone magazine wrote an article about it entitled “Mike Pence Says The Man Who Wanted Him Dead January 6 Shouldn’t Be Charged”.
Republican Andy Biggs, the subject of an investigative recommendation to the House Ethics Committee for refusing to comply with a subpoena, responded dismissively in a statement, calling the committee “a charade” that never really needed his testimony and that of other Republicans .
“They only wanted our testimony so they could edit and misinterpret our statements to put forward their false stories, as they did with many other witnesses,” he charged. “The January 6 committee slandered my name and character, and I look forward to reviewing its documents, publishing its lies, and clearing up the truth at the 118th Congress.”
Scott Perry, another congressman similarly attacked, responded through a spokesperson, calling the committee a soon-to-be-defunct “stingy kangaroo court.”
The recommendation is non-binding and does not require the Justice Department to respond or act on it, but the commission has been working with the department, led by attorney Merrick Garland, and has shared evidence and testimony it has collected.
Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House communications director in the Trump administration, told CNN she was particularly interested in seeing if the Justice Department would investigate what she said were attempts to interfere with witnesses that took place during the committee work.
“I think it is strategically advised not to recommend the names of White House officials for prosecution because that will lead to overrunning people who can be legally exposed and incite them to cooperate with the Department of Justice.”
Source: DN
