Under normal conditions, Donald Trump would already be prosecuted for serious criminal offenses, among which there would be some related to his proven responsibility in the bloody assault on the Capitol, on January 6, 2021, plus others linked to the concealment of classified documents in his house. of Florida through maneuvers of obstruction of justice. This was recognized a few days ago by a US diplomat who spoke to La Vanguardia on condition of anonymity. Indications of these crimes are not lacking, he assumed. But in this country there is fear, he argued, of an outbreak of violence if Trump is criminally charged.
Perhaps for this reason, the House of Representatives commission investigating the 6-E coup is thoroughly studying how and when to channel a possible request to the Department of Justice and the US Attorney General's Office to file criminal charges against the former president. . The department is already investigating the matter on its own and does not need to be required to do anything. But a push from parliament would not hurt.
The anomalous conditions that the United States is going through internally are reflected in a handful of polls, according to which a large majority of Republican voters believe Trump when he maintains that Joe Biden “stole” the 2020 elections from him; half of the population believes that the nation will experience a civil war in the next few years; more than 70% think that violence with political objectives can be justified, 12% say they are willing to exercise it and 7.1%, “to kill”. All this is added to the fact that no former US president has been criminally tried; Richard Nixon was about to be pardoned for the Watergate case, but his successor, Gerald Ford, chose to pardon him earlier.
On Thursday, in their ninth and in principle last public session before the mid-term elections on November 8, the nine members of the 6-E parliamentary commission – seven Democrats and two Republicans – voted unanimously to summon Trump to answer directly about your more than accredited responsibility in the assault on the headquarters of Congress.
The committee presented testimonies, emails and videos that supported previous evidence that the then acting president knew that he had lost the elections when, even so, he chose to execute the "premeditated plan" that he had had for months to claim victory no matter what. happen, and, if necessary, try to annul the adverse results, even by force. It was also clear that Trump encouraged protesters to occupy the Capitol despite knowing they were carrying weapons and that he tried to go with them to lead their march.
Before voting on the summons to Trump, the vice president of the investigative commission, Republican Liz Cheney, announced the probable request to the Prosecutor's Office to charge him along with others involved in 6-E. "We have enough information to consider criminal injunctions from several people," said the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. And she added that "the large amount of evidence presented so far has shown us that the central cause of what happened on 6-E was a man: Donald Trump."
From the outset, it is not expected that the plenary session of the Lower House, which would have to ratify the criminal referral in question, will meet until after the legislative elections on November 8, where the 435 seats of that body and a third of the 100 of the Senate. It is not likely, therefore, that the decision to propose criminal charges against the former president will be formalized before midterms.
Another thing is what happens with Trump's impending summons to testify. If he rejects it, he could face an accusation of contempt like the one that motivated the one directed against his former adviser Steve Bannon, already convicted twice (not testifying or providing documents) and awaiting a specific sentence. Each of these crimes is punishable by between 30 days and one year in prison.
The former president could also appeal the subpoena, or serve it and then invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. For now, Trump responded to the committee yesterday without clarifying whether he will agree to testify, but deploying a string of criticism, lies and insults to the commission that does not anticipate a very cooperative attitude. The former president insisted the election was a fraud and called committee members "corrupt and thugs." In line with him.
