US Capitol riot panel: Trump may have engaged in 'criminal conspiracy'
The congressional committee investigating the deadly January 6 Capitol attack says former President Donald Trump may have engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Two weeks before Joe Biden’s presidency, supporters of Trump -- the then president – stormed the Capitol building, where lawmakers were in the process of confirming Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential election.
The bloody attack resulted in the death of at least five people, including a police officer.
In a major release of its findings, filed in federal court late Wednesday, the congressional panel suggested that Trump himself violated multiple laws by attempting to prevent Congress from certifying his defeat.
"The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," the committee said.
According to the filing, Trump's Vice President Mike Pence along with several of his aides had repeatedly told him that he had lost the election and that his fraud claims were unfounded.
Trump, however, rejected the facts and continued to mislead his supporters and demand a strategy for overturning the results, they said.
The Committee's members have previously said they will consider passing along evidence of criminal conduct by Trump to the US Justice Department.
The move, known as a criminal referral, would be largely symbolic but would increase political pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to charge Trump.
To prove Trump committed felony obstruction, investigators would have to show he “corruptly” intended to impede an official proceeding. To this end, the panel says Trump’s work with his lawyer, John Eastman, to pressure Pence to take illegal acts could satisfy this requirement.
Prosecutors have so far charged hundreds of Trump supporters who breached the Capitol with seeking to obstruct Congress’ effort to count electoral votes, but applying that law to the former president is a complex undertaking.
The panel’s latest findings, however, may drive up pressure on the Justice Department to reveal its own thinking on the matter.
Trump was impeached twice for inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol building back then. The Republican president, however, was ultimately acquitted.
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