The Justice Department has recently expanded its investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, targeting some of Trump’s allies in Washington and around the country who participated in his scheme to invalidate Biden’s victory. But prosecutors have not indicated whether they will bring a case against the former president.
and top government officials that he had lost the election to Biden and that his claims of widespread voter fraud were divorced from reality.Still in office, he leaned on the Justice Departmentto take up his cause. He pressured the states — asking Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” votes, for example — and Vice President Mike Pence, who was presiding over the joint session of Congress that day.
Federal law, for instance, makes it a crime to incite, organize, encourage or promote a riot like the one that enveloped the Capitol. But that’s a high bar for prosecutors to clear. Trump’s exhortation to “fight like hell” could be construed as a more general call to action. He was acquitted by the Senate of an incitement charge in his impeachment trial after the insurrection.
Some legal experts say it doesn’t matter if Trump believed the election was stolen or not. But others say much would depend on the president’s intent and state of mind and whether he supported activities he knew to be unlawful. Though witnesses have testified under oath about telling Trump he had lost, it would be hard to prove what he actually believed.
One of the more striking accounts from Hutchinson — that Trump, irate at being driven to the White House instead of the Capitol on Jan. 6, tried to grab at the steering wheel of his presidential vehicle — was something she heard second-hand, likely inadmissible before a jury. Some Democrats in Congress have been pressing Garland to act. The Jan. 6 committee itself could make a formal criminal referral based on its more than 1,000 interviews. The Justice Department wouldn’t have to act on such a referral, but it has been pressuring the panel to hand over its interview transcripts as it weighs making its own case.There’s no legal bar to prosecuting Trump as a former president.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Opinion | No, Donald Trump probably can’t take down Kevin McCarthyOpinion by Henry Olsen: There really isn’t anyone else up for the job to lead the House GOP.
Read more »
Indict Donald Trump. Right nowOPINION: The Jan. 6 committee has shown just how unhinged Donald Trump was and is, writes stevealmondjoy. The Department of Justice must indict him. Now.
Read more »
Donald Trump Thinks He’s a Mob Boss, But That’s an Insult to Mob BossesHe may have threatened witnesses, but he's no Vito Corleone.
Read more »
Former Aide Cassidy Hutchinson: Donald Trump Was Told Protesters Had Weapons on Jan. 6Cassidy Hutchinson quoted Trump as directing his staff, in profane terms, to take away the magnetometers that he thought would slow down supporters who’d gathered in Washington. In videotaped testimony played before the committee, she recalled the former president saying words to the effect of: “I don’t f-in’ care that they have weapons.”
Read more »
Donald Trump Lunged at Security to Get to Capitol on Jan. 6, Says AideCassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, offered an explosive testimony.
Read more »
Cassidy Hutchinson’s Testimony Should Be the End of Donald TrumpIn today’s January 6th hearing, Cassidy Hutchinson, a White House aide, calmly described an utterly unhinged President who tried to grab the steering wheel of his Presidential S.U.V., yelling “I’m the fucking President. Take me up to the Capitol now!”
Read more »