United States: The committee of the assault on the Capitol points to Donald Trump for "criminal conspiracy" | International

Donald Trump and some of his advisers participated in a "criminal conspiracy" to deceive the public and reverse the result of the 2020 presidential election, according to a document presented this Wednesday by the House of Representatives committee investigating the assault on Capitol Hill. on January 6 before a court. If the Justice Department reviews the material and finds there is sufficient evidence, the Republican could be charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and obstruction of an official congressional process by attempting to block the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory.

"The Committee also has a good faith basis to conclude that the president and members of his campaign participated in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," reads the document filed with a District Court in California. In addition to efforts to hinder certification, "there is also evidence that the conspiracy extended to insurgents involved in violence on Capitol Hill."

The investigative commission — made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans — does not have the power to file criminal charges, but it can collect evidence of a possible crime and recommend that the Justice Department act.

“Evidence supports that President Trump and members of his campaign knew he had not won enough legitimate electoral votes to be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election during the joint session of Congress on January 6, yet the president tried to use the vice president to manipulate the results in his favor, ”says the document. Attorney John Eastman, who advised Trump in the final months of his presidency, pressured Greg Jacob, a representative for then-Vice President Mike Pence, to intervene and stop the electoral vote certification ceremony, according to new documentation. .

The court document grew out of a lawsuit filed by Eastman, which is seeking to block the release of his documents to the committee, citing a "highly partisan" invasion of his privacy. The attorney has disclosed nearly 8,000 pages of emails but is still keeping 11,000 documents secret, citing attorney-client privilege. The committee has based its case for obtaining the requested material on the grounds that this privilege does not apply when the confidential information seeks to promote or conceal a crime.

The commission has interviewed more than 550 people connected to the 2020 presidential election, including state officials, senior Justice Department officials and some of Trump's leadership. Richard Donoghue, number two in the Justice Department during the Republican's term, maintained in his interrogation that he himself had tried to dissuade Trump from his accusations of alleged electoral fraud. “I told the president several times that the allegations about ballots being smuggled in a suitcase and counted several times in the machines was not true. I told him several times that we had looked at it, that we had reviewed the videos, interviewed witnesses, and that it was not true.

This is the most detailed and revealing information that has been presented so far by the committee that has been working for nine months to try to clarify what happened on January 6, 2021 and how they can prevent something like this from happening again. The investigative commission is expected to publish all its findings before the legislative elections in November.

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