Donald Trump’s dark reports come to light in the attack on Capitol Hill

The U.S. Congressional hearings on the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 have entered a lull, at least for now, as the Justice Department moves forward with a criminal investigation parallel that he considers the most important in his history.

The Justice Department observed with interest how each of the eight sessions uncovered new information that could figure in a potential court case against current President Donald Trump.

The House of Representatives committee uncovered or detailed the tricks behind the scenes which revealed how far Trump and his enablers wanted to push themselves to stay in power.

Although the summer auditions are over, the investigation continues and the jury plans to meet again in September. Washington examines what is known about Trump’s actions and those close to him around the violent insurgency.

The “mints”

To understand what Trump’s despair and lies have become a powerful danger to democracyyou can take the so-called case of ticks, the protagonist of one of the most absurd and toxic episodes of the hearings on January 6.

Thus was born one conspiracy theoryin a dark sea of ​​many of them.

It all started at a graduation center in Georgia, where a mother gave her daughter those pills during a long night at work. Some of her recorded them on video and invented that what her mother had given her daughter was a USB port.

A Trump lawyer has leaked allegations that the video captured women using the device to try to rig the election tally against the then president and Republican candidate.

Desperate to stay in power, the tycoon has fueled the lie. He assaulted his mother by name, calling her a “professional vote scammer” and groups of “vigilantes” – civilians illegally taking over police powers – soon appeared at a family home to carry out a “citizen arrest”, reportedly. . out at panel hearings, all for little money.

The incident fueled a web of lies, which melted under the control of investigators like snowflakes one summer in Georgia. The hearings illustrated how those stories fueled the ire of Trump supporters throughout the United States and especially by those who stormed the Capitol, many armed and bloodthirsty.

Long before the commission called its first witness, the scenes of the rampage had been etched into the public consciousness.

revelations

What new information could emerge from the parliamentary commission investigating the events of January 6, 2021? A lot, as it turned out. And as the investigation continues, with more hearings scheduled for September, more evidence.

Made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans – working at odds with their own party – the panel did what Trump’s two impeachments could not: create a coherent story out of the chaos rather than two contradictory partisan narratives.

“An American butcher,” said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, who led the second impeachment trial against Trump and was a jury member in this investigation, on the final outcome of the investigation. “This is Donald Trump’s true legacy,” he added.

The panel exposed how far Trump and his facilitators went to keep him in power and to what extent his inner circle knew his stolen election claims were false. Some have told him to his face, while others have played together.

All the while, the hearings made it clear that Trump was willing to see both the legislative branch and democratic processes consummated in one state after another at the game of his vanity.

All against Mike Pence

He was told that some protesters were looking for Vice President Mike Pence in the Capitol to hang him. He was told that Pence deserved to be hanged.

Trump was told that many of his supporters carried guns that day. He replied that “it didn’t matter at all”.

“I’m not here to hurt myself,” he added, according to one testimony.

The commission identified a number of options, including some illegal, that were raised in the White House as Trump and his allies considered whether he would issue an executive order to seize the voting machines and other measures that no democratic government takes.

“The idea that the federal government could come in and take over the voting machines, no,” White House attorney Pat Cipollone recalled, recounting a meeting at the White House that turned into a scream match. “I don’t understand why we had to tell them it was a bad idea for the country.”

Trump sought the support of Republican-led state governments to find more votes for him or create false voters. He urged Pence to do something he did not have the power, or the will, to do when he was asked to certify the election.

When all else failed, Trump told his supporters to “fight in hell” and encouraged them to march on Capitol Hill, saying he would join them later.

rejection of the plot

Republicans themselves thwarted Trump’s plot in key swing states. There was a point where conservatives, bureaucrats and supporters finally said no.

When Trump lobbied his own vice president to sabotage Joe Biden’s election certification, Pence told him no.

A Republican election official in Georgia told him he would not manipulate the results to give Trump victory in the state. The president of Republican representatives in Arizona lobbied to create false voters, pleaded his oath and said there was no way to do it.

Two officials who successively headed the Justice Department told him no. When Trump tried to appoint a complacent third party, justice officials told him in the Oval Office that if he did, they would resign en masse and the new secretary would be left “running to a cemetery.”

All of this left the president with a team of inexperienced, mostly outside the political circle. One sold pillows.

“We have many theories,” Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani admitted to Rusty Bowers, the Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives. “But we have no proof.”

possible crimes

Attention now turns to the Justice Department, where Secretary Merrick Garland said his criminal investigation into the matter is the most important ever.

Some legal experts have identified a number of potential crimes for which the former president could could be prosecuted: fraudulent obstruction of public prosecution, conspiracy to defraud the United States and incitement to riot. Even seditious conspiracy.

However, it is easier to talk about these possible allegations than to prove them beyond a reasonable doubt, especially against a former president, who may even stand for election again.

As the hearings unfolded, Democrats found themselves in awe, even awe, of Rep. Liz Cheney, the deeply conservative Republican on the panel who, despite her measured words, made clear her icy contempt for Trump and the many Republicans. in Congress who appear to remain slaves to the former head of the White House.

He dismissed Trump supporters who argued that the former president had simply been manipulated by “lunatics” outside the institutional channels.

«President Trump is a 76-year-old man – he replied – He is not an impressionable child. Like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his actions and choices “.

“I tell my fellow Republicans who defend the indefensible: the day will come when Donald Trump is gone, but his misfortune will remain,” concluded the legislator.

Source: AP

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