Donald Trump has opened the floodgates “to disorder and corruption” and should be held legally responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, attack, the chairman of the House investigation into the Capitol assault said Thursday.
The former Republican president “tried to destroy our democratic institutions,” Bennie Thompson said during a prime-time hearing concluding a series of public presentations of her commission’s work.
“It opened the way for disorder and corruption,” further asserted the Democrat-elect who, sick with Covid, intervened by video link.
“Trump refused to act out of selfish desire”
Two members of the commission presented the day of January 6, 2021 as lived “minute by minute” by Donald Trump, whom they accused of having “failed in his duty” as commander-in-chief, by doing “nothing” to prevent his supporters of wreaking havoc on Capitol Hill.
Entrenched in the private dining room of the White House, Donald Trump followed the attack on television “while his close advisers and family begged him to intervene,” described the Democrat-elect Elaine Luria.
But “President Trump has refused to act because of his selfish desire to cling to power,” he added. During all this time, he “did not once pick up the phone to order his administration to lend a hand” to the overwhelmed police, Republican-elect Liz Cheney had already stressed.
“No one is above the law”
The “January 6 commission” will withdraw from public scrutiny to work on its final report, due in the fall. But it will continue to collect testimony and documents and new hearings will be held in September, according to Bennie Thompson.
Whatever his recommendations, the decision to prosecute Donald Trump will fall to Justice Minister Merrick Garland, who does not rule it out. “No one is above the law,” he said Wednesday.
Donald Trump, who openly flirts with the idea of running for president in 2024, vehemently denounces the work of the commission and would not fail to present himself as the victim of a political cabal if impeached.
Source: BFM TV
