“Our country cannot allow a defeated president to turn into a tyrant seeking to overthrow our democratic institutions (and) and sow violence. Donald Trump should never be able to hold new public office following inciting his supporters to insurrection, concludes the final report of the US parliamentary inquiry on the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021published overnight from Thursday to Friday.
The conclusion of this 845-page document is followed by a list of recommendations aimed at ensuring that the attack on the seat of American democracy, which the former Republican president is accused of having orchestrated to prevent the transfer of power to his Democratic opponent Joe Biden following his victory in the 2020 presidential election, never repeats.
14th amendment
Minutes urge legislation to ban 2024 re-candidate Donald Trump and anyone who engages in ‘insurrection’ from holding public office whether ‘federal or state, civilian or military’ using the 14th Amendment, a scenario that has no chance of succeeding with a Republican-controlled House starting in January.
The culmination of 18 months of investigation, during which elected officials interviewed a thousand people, examined a mountain of documents and held high-profile public hearings, the report establishes that the Republican billionaire was “the main cause” of the events of the 6 January.
Criminal prosecution recommended
The nine members of the commission – seven Democrats and two Republicans – recommended on Monday that criminal proceedings are initiated once morest the former president, for calling for insurrection, conspiracy once morest the American state, obstruction of an official procedure (certification of a presidential election) and false declarations. But the committee only has an advisory role. It is the Department of Justice, which has appointed a special prosecutor, who will be responsible for deciding.
Parliamentarians also called for reforms to election laws, federal action once morest extremist groups, and classification of Congressional certification of presidential elections as a “national special security event,” such as the State of the Union, delivered each year by the American president before Congress.
“No one is above the law”
The publication of this report constitutes the last blow of brilliance of the commission of inquiry before its dissolution in January when the Republicans, who are in great majority opposed to this investigation, will take control of the House of Representatives.
Bennie Thompson said he was “convinced” Monday on CNN that the Department of Justice, which began to receive material and evidence from the parliamentary inquiry, was going to indict Donald Trump. “No one, including a former president, is above the law,” he said.
Donald Trump, who has denounced the congressional investigation as “a witch hunt” and its members “social cases” and “thugs”, must also face criminal and civil investigations into his financial affairs in New York and the electoral pressure he exerted in Georgia to try to overturn the 2020 election.
