A panel investigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol last year recommended Monday charging Donald Trump with several crimes, including insurrection, exposing the former president to jail.
The committee also proposed charging him with obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States following an 18-month investigation into the assault on Congress on January 6, 2021.
At least five people were killed when a mob whipped up by Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent ransacked the Capitol to block the transfer of power to President-elect Joe Biden.
The committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, voted unanimously to propose those criminal charges to the Justice Department after Justice Department Vice President Liz Cheney accused Trump of “clear negligence” in not immediately trying to stop the riots and said he is “not fit for any office.”
“No one who behaves like this at that time can ever again occupy a position of authority in our nation,” he said.
The commission’s largely symbolic vote is non-binding and the final decision will fall to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“The commission gathered significant evidence that President Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power as set forth in our Constitution,” committee member Jamie Raskin said shortly before the vote.
“The evidence accumulated during our investigation justifies recommending criminal prosecution against Donald Trump,” he added.
The suggested charges expose Trump to prison sentences and a ban from holding public office.
Read: Trump begins campaign to seek US presidency again in 2024
Congressmen can’t press charges on their own, but they can recommend doing so to the Justice Department, which has already appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Trump’s role in the Capitol riots and his efforts to reverse the 2020 election.
Some 900 people were arrested in connection with that attack.
The committee believes Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated plan to reverse the presidential election and prevent the transfer of power.”
Investigators say the plot began with Trump’s campaign to spread allegations, which he knew to be false, that the election was rigged.
The commission’s final report will be published on Wednesday.
The decision to recommend charges against Trump is unprecedented: Congress never referred a criminal case against a sitting president or a former president to the government.
It is also a blow to Trump, 76, who has already announced his candidacy for the White House and could be disqualified.
“Trump knew he lost”
In eight hearings, the panel revealed a wealth of evidence about Trump’s involvement in plans to overturn the election and found it impossible for the then-president not to be aware that he had lost the election to Joe Biden.
Trump “oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of power” to Biden.
Investigators say the plot began with the former president’s campaign to knowingly spread false allegations of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
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Trump is accused of trying to corrupt the Justice Department and pressuring his vice president, Mike Pence, as well as election officials and state lawmakers, to overturn the 2020 vote.
“The most dramatic example of this coercive campaign was the president’s January 2, 2021 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, in which the president urged him to find 11,780 votes to change the outcome in that state,” said Congressman Adam Schiff.
Trump is also accused of summoning and rallying the mob in Washington, and directing it toward the Capitol despite knowing it was armed with assault rifles, handguns and other weapons.
And for hours he ignored pleas from aides to take steps to end the violence, lawmakers said.
Trump was “at the center” of “a coup attempt,” said the committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson.
The panel interviewed several Trump aides, including his then-attorney general, Bill Barr, and even his daughter Ivanka. In excerpts from interviews revealed to the public, many of them said they never believed voter fraud had taken place.
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