Jan. 6 probe panel says enough evidence to criminally indict Trump

Members of the US House committee probing the January 6 deadly insurrection on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump say they have gathered enough evidence to indict the former president for attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.

The probe committee announced on Sunday that it had put together enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider a criminal indictment against the former president in an unprecedented move.

The select committee’s public hearings, launched last week, intend to put up a case against Trump that he was responsible for the Jan. 6 riot, starting with knowingly spreading lies around the election, seeking to overturn the results, assembling the mob in the Capitol and failing to act to stop the violence.

According to Democratic lawmakers, additional evidence will be released during the hearings this week, which will show that Trump and some of his advisers engaged in a “massive effort” to spread misinformation, pressured the Justice Department to embrace his false claims, and urged then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject state electors and block the vote certification on January 6, 2021.

As the hearings unfold, California Democratic congressman and chairman of the US House intelligence committee Adam Schiff said he would like the Justice Department to “investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump.”

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The committee on Sunday announced that Trump's campaign manager, Bill Stepien, was among the witnesses scheduled to testify at a hearing on Monday that focuses on Trump's effort to spread his lies about a stolen election. Stepien was subpoenaed for his public testimony.

Trump’s spokesman, Taylor Budowich, said the committee's decision to call Stepien was politically motivated.

Monday's witness list also includes BJay Pak, the top federal prosecutor in Atlanta who left his position on Jan. 4, 2021, a day after an audio recording was made public in which Trump called him a “never-Trumper"; Chris Stirewalt, the former political editor for Fox News; noted Washington elections attorney Benjamin Ginsberg; and Al Schmidt, a former city commissioner in Philadelphia.

The panel will also focus on millions of dollars the Trump team raised in the run-up to the January 6 riot, according to a committee aide who wished for anonymity.

Committee members also emphasized they would present clear evidence that “multiple” Republican lawmakers, including Pennsylvania Congressman Scott Perry, had sought a pardon from Trump, which would protect him from prosecution.

Perry on Friday denied he ever did so, calling the assertion an “absolute, shameless, and soulless lie.”

“We’re not going to make accusations or say things without proof or evidence backing it,” said Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, in response to Perry’s remarks.

US legislators further said the most important audience member over the course of the hearings may be Attorney General Merrick Garland, who must decide whether his department can and should prosecute Trump.

They left no doubt as to their own view of whether the evidence is sufficient to proceed.

“Once the evidence is accumulated by the Justice Department, it needs to make a decision about whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the president’s guilt or anyone else’s,” Schiff said. “But they need to be investigated if there’s credible evidence, which I think there is.”

Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland also stressed that he doesn’t intend to “browbeat” Garland but noted the committee has already laid out in legal pleadings criminal statutes they believe Trump violated.

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“I think that he knows, his staff knows, the US attorneys know, what’s at stake here,” Raskin said. “They know the importance of it, but I think they are rightfully paying close attention to precedent in history as well, as the facts of this case.”

According to local press reports, Garland has not specified whether he would be willing to prosecute Trump, which would be unprecedented and may be complicated in an election season in which the former president has openly expressed his intention to run for president again.

No US president or ex-president has ever been indicted.

Richard Nixon resigned from office in 1974 as he faced impeachment and a likely grand jury indictment on charges of bribery, conspiracy, and obstruction of justice. President Gerald Ford later pardoned his predecessor before any criminal charges related to Watergate could be filed.

Legal experts have said that the justice department's prosecution of Trump over the riot is likely to set an uneasy precedent in which an administration of one party could more routinely go after the former president of another.

A federal judge in California said in a March ruling in a civil case that Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in seeking to obstruct the congressional count of the Electoral College ballots on January 6, 2021.

The judge cited two statutes: obstruction of an official proceeding, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

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