The American parliamentary committee that analyzes Donald Trump’s role in the Capitol invasion unanimously approved, this Thursday, subpoena the former president to appear before its members, for being “obliged to answer for his actions”.
Donald Trump “is the person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from you,” said Bennie Thompson during a public hearing.
“He has to be held accountable. He has to answer for his actions,” he added.
The commission plans to “do our best to tell the fullest story possible and provide recommendations to help ensure that nothing like January 6th happens again in the future,” he continued.
Shortly thereafter, Trump denounced the subpoena issued by the commission as a “fiasco” and questioned why he had not been called to testify earlier.
“Why didn’t ‘Decommission’ ask me to testify months ago?” Trump asked on his social network, Truth Social, after lawmakers decided to subpoena him to testify, in an apparent attempt to disqualify the Parliamentary Commission in charge of the investigations. . “This only served to further divide our country,” he added.
The mission of the CPI, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, is to shed light on the president’s behavior before, during and after the attack on the House of Representatives in Washington, DC.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill to try to prevent lawmakers from certifying the victory of his opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, in the November 2020 presidential election. was stolen”.
Ahead of Thursday’s announcement, the commission retraced the timeline of events, showing that the former president had planned “well in advance” to declare himself victorious in the 2020 elections, even before the results were released.
Democratic lawmaker Zoe Lofgren evoked “a premeditated plan by the president to declare his victory, whatever the actual outcome.” His victory speech “was planned well in advance, before the votes were counted”
“His intention was clear: to ignore the rule of law and stay in power,” commented Republican Adam Kinzinger.
“Let’s go to violence”
To back up their statements, lawmakers projected videos of the former president, some of his relatives and former White House staff.
In footage shot just before the 2020 presidential election by a Danish documentary crew, Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former Republican president, can be heard saying he doesn’t care about the vote.
“Fuck the vote, let’s go to violence,” he said.
Stone, who has not been charged in connection with the January 6 events, questioned the authenticity of the videos and claimed they were doctored.
The CPI also played a recording of a Trump phone call to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which the former president says he “needs” about 11,000 ballots in his name, enough to beat Biden in this southern state. .
It also revealed elements of the hundreds of thousands of pages provided by the Secret Service, the elite police force responsible for protecting senior state officials. Parliamentarians seek to understand why the SMS sent by agents on the day of the invasion were deleted.
The documents confirm evidence presented at previous hearings that Trump fueled the rage of his supporters even though he was told about the potential for violence, lawmaker Adam Schiff said.
Since its inception, the CPI has interrogated more than 1,000 witnesses, including two of Donald Trump’s sons, and combed tens of thousands of documents.
The investigation report is expected to be released later in the year, but likely not before the November 8 legislative elections, which will determine which party will control Congress for the remainder of President Biden’s term.
Panel members openly suggested that Justice Secretary Merrick Garland should charge Trump in relation to the Capitol Hill attack. However, the commission itself has not officially said whether it will recommend referrals to justice.
