The congressional committee analyzing the deadly January 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol has dismissed former President Donald Trump on four criminal charges related to an uprising he inspired for. he could not openly accept that he had lost an election. Faced with all this, this former president has announced that he will run for re-election to regain office. This is the state of American politics, with its divided population and millions deliberately ignoring the evidence presented by the committee, just two weeks before the second anniversary of the riots. In January. 6 committees timed out. Republicans should take control of the House and the committee should be dissolved. Thus, the legal ball will now belong to the Ministry of Justice, while the political ball will belong to the voters. responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we have provided to assist them in their work." Here are five takeaways from what we learned from Monday's final committee hearing:
1. Trump - and others - will be referred to the Justice Department on criminal charges. The key news from the final hearing was that after a lengthy investigation, committee members were confident that there was enough evidence to charge former President Trump with four things: Obstructing legal proceedings; Conspiracy to defraud the United States; Conspiracy to perjure; and Conspiracy to defraud the United States by assisting, aiding, or consoling those involved in an insurgency Now, that doesn't mean Trump will take responsibility. The Commission has no authority over what the Justice Department does. The Justice Department has its investigation into Trump ongoing and is currently being led by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Smith after Trump announced he was running for president again to demonstrate his independence from the investigation. Jamie Raskin, committee member, D-Md., said: “Our system is not a justice system where infantry soldiers are jailed and the instigators and ringleaders are free,” said committee member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said.
2. Members of Congress have been referred to the House Ethics Committee. The committee also announced that four members of Congress, who have never complied with subpoenas, have been referred to the House Ethics Committee. They are Republican congressmen: Kevin McCarthy from California, Jim Jordan from Ohio Scott Perry of Pennsylvania Andy Biggs of Arizona All are close allies of Trump, and their resistance to the rules is emblematic of the opposing style in American politics that had developed even before Trump joined. It remains unclear, however, whether what will happen to them, as Republicans will reconsider re-establishing the ethics committee in the next Congress and McCarthy will be the next speaker.
3. There's plenty of evidence that Trump knows the truth, but just doesn't want to be seen as a loser. Anything that happens on January 6 is likely to happen simply because Trump has no escape route, a way to save face after his 2020 election defeat. This is obvious to those of us who have been covering Trump for a while, but it was confirmed by Hope Hicks, a former White House communications adviser to Trump who is very close to Trump. Hicks, who we heard about for the first time on Monday during those hearings, said in taped testimony that she told Trump she was beginning to worry that the fraud allegations were false. This fact could damage her legacy. Here is Trump's response: "He said something like, 'You know, nobody will care about my legacy if I lose,' Hicks said, 'so it doesn't matter, the only important thing is to win. . "
There is plenty of evidence Trump – and his team – knew he lost, that the allegations of fraud were baseless and that he knew what he was doing, according to testimony from multiple former Trump administration officials. "He was-he had-usually he had pretty clear eyes," said Bill Stepien, the Trump 2020 campaign manager, according to written testimony released in a report by the committee. "Like, he understood, you know – you know, we told him where we thought the race was, and I think he was pretty realistic with our viewpoint, in agreement with our viewpoint of kind of the forecast and the uphill climb we thought he had." Stepien added: "We'd have to, you know, relay the news that, yeah, that tip that someone told you about those votes or that fraud or, you know, nothing came of it. That would be our job as, you know, the truth-telling squad and, you know, not a fun job to be, you know, much – it's an easier job to be telling the president about, you know, wild allegations. It's a harder job to be telling him on the back end that, yeah, that wasn't true." One of Trump's campaign lawyers, Alex Cannon, in a mid-to-late November phone call with former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, said, per the report, that he found nothing "sufficient to change the results in any of the key States." Meadows responded saying, "So there is no there, there?" Even Trump counsel Rudy Giuliani admitted during his deposition to the committee: "I do not think the machines stole the election." A federal judge noted that Trump was told by email "that the specific numbers of voter fraud were wrong but continued to tout those numbers, both in court and in public." And he "signed a verification swearing under oath that the incorporated, inaccurate numbers 'are true and correct' or 'believed to be true and correct' to the best of his knowledge and belief." These aren't people who are aligned with Democrats or were "Never Trump" or "Trump Haters," as the former president likes to say. The opposite was true in most of the testimony given by the committee. It is up to Trump voters at the grassroots level whether they can self-acknowledge reality without falling prey to baseless conspiracies.
4. It is unclear whether the results will have political implications. It's no secret that the country is politically divided and partisanship, especially among Republicans, has taken root. So despite key evidence — with testimony from pro-Trump Republicans — people were selectively watching. The Committee in its report acknowledged: “Although the Committee hearings were watched live by tens of millions of Americans and widely covered by most major news sources, the Committee also recognized that the media and commentators were Others have actively prevented viewers from watching, and millions of other Americans still haven't. factual evidence addressed by this report." As a result, the committee said it is releasing video summaries with each relevant piece of evidence. And that's probably why the first part of the hearing includes so many testimonial clips that have been seen in past hearings, almost like the synopsis of the previous season of a series on Netflix. There is evidence to suggest that followers were moved. Ahead of the hearings, just 48% of independents in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll said they believe Trump has "a lot" or "a lot" to blame for what happened that day. After multiple hearings, the July survey found that the blame rate for Trump had risen to 57%. Republicans rose only marginally — and less than a fifth said Trump should be held accountable for what happened. 80% of Democrats and 55% of independents said they pay "a lot" or "a little" attention to the hearings. But 56% of Republicans say they don't. It's not hard to draw a straight line between the amount of attention and the movement - or lack of movement - in the survey.
5. The ball is in the DOJ's yard – and the public's. Radicals were angered by Attorney General Merrick Garland's methodical (read: slow) pace in pursuing charges against Trump. But it will be up to the special advocate to bring charges or what they are. They do not need to act on what the January 6 committee recommends, although investigators are paying close attention to the details of the committee's findings. But don't expect to know much about the progress of special counsels, as DOJ's tend to be fairly silent, if not completely silent, about the details of ongoing investigations until they present them. before the court. Politically, it will be chosen by the voters. Trump will likely retain the support of his base. As we've noted, Republicans are least likely to pay attention to these hearings. In the multi-candidate primaries, Trump remains the leading contender for the GOP nomination. But he has legal issues in many states, not just the federal one, and many of his favorite candidates — and Holocaust deniers — have lost in swing states. So whether it's because of the chaos that often surrounds him, the threat he poses to American democracy and confidence in his elections, or simply because of his brand. he is not winning in competitive states where Republicans may need to win to take control of the White House and Congress, Trump is at his most vulnerable point since being elected president six last year. And members of that committee — some of whom will not return to Congress out of anger, or potentially anger, at Trump's establishment — certainly expect voters to respond. “The future of our democracy is in your hands,” Thompson said. "People decide who is worthy of the public's trust."
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