Donald Trump referred for criminal prosecution over US Capitol attack

Washington: Donald Trump has become the first former US president to face criminal referrals from a Congressional committee, after a damning probe into last year’s Capitol riot recommended prosecution for insurrection, conspiracy, false statements, and obstruction.

In a significant but mostly symbolic move, the January 6 Select Committee wrapped up its final business meeting before being disbanded by voting to make the referrals to the Justice Department, placing Trump at the centre of one the most extraordinary assaults on democracy in American history.

Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the US Capitol in Washington on January 6, 2021.Credit: AP

“If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,” the Committee’s Democratic chairman, Bennie Thompson, warned on Monday (US time).

The referrals against the twice-impeached president include four key offences: inciting or assisting an insurrection; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; and conspiracy to make a false statement. Trump’s former electoral lawyer John Eastman – the author of a memo outlining a plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory – and unspecified “others” were also referred to the department.

While the committee’s decision does not hold any legal weight or require the Justice Department to take any action as it continues its own separate probes into Trump’s role in the Capitol attack and the alleged mishandling of documents, it nonetheless sends a powerful signal that it believes he committed certain crimes and must be held to account.

In addition, four members of Congress who failed to comply with committee subpoenas will now be referred to the ethics committee: Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who could soon be the speaker of the new House of Representatives, and congressmen Scott Perry, Jim Jordan and Andy Biggs.

However, this is also merely symbolic because the committee is evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, and there are only a few days left before the new Congress begins, which will change the membership of the committees across both chambers.

After an investigation lasting 18 months, the referrals are nonetheless a key moment in one of the most important congressional inquiries in history, which began shortly after Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol last year. The supporters followed the urging of the newly defeated president who told them to “fight like hell” to stop Biden’s victory from being certified. Five people died as a result of the attack, and about 140 law enforcement officers were injured.

“It’s notable that for the first time in history, the House has referred a former president for criminal prosecution,” said Professor Alan Rozenshtein, a national security law expert from the University of Minnesota and former Justice Department official. “And I think it’s particularly notable that they did not just do so on fraud and conspiracy – although those are important charges – but also on the charge of insurrection, which is particularly serious.”

The insurrection referral is the most damning of the claims and could exclude Trump from running for office if the department pursues the charge and secures a conviction. But this would require prosecutors to clear a high bar by proving beyond reasonable doubt that the former president intended to incite the violence that occurred that day.

According to the committee’s findings - some of which were unveiled on Tuesday (AEDT) ahead of a lengthy full report to be released this week – Trump’s attempt to subvert the 2020 election was part of a multipart, coordinated and premeditated plan. Elements included concocting an elaborate scheme to use fake electors to flip the 2020 election; attempting to corrupt his own Justice Department by pushing top law enforcement officials to cast doubt on the results; pressuring his vice president to stop Biden’s victory being certified; and ignoring family and top aides who disagreed with his view that he could overturn the election results.

The January 6 committee has referred Trump for criminal investigation.Credit: Getty

“In summary, President Trump lit the flame. He poured gasoline on the fire and sat by in the White House dining room for hours watching the fire burn, and today still continues to fan those flames. That was his extreme dereliction of duty,” said Democratic panel member Elaine Luria.

Trump – who last month announced his plan to run for the White House again in 2024 – has consistently claimed he is a victim of a witch hunt and has been using this narrative to fundraise for his campaign.

“Republicans and Patriots all over the land must stand strong and united against the Thugs and Scoundrels of the Unselect Committee. It will be a dark period in American history, but with darkness comes light!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social online platform.

Trump is also the subject of multiple other investigations. Among them are two Justice Department probes – one into the mishandling of sensitive documents found at his Mar-a-Lago estate; the other into his attempts to subvert the 2020 election.

In Trump’s former home city of New York, he is also facing multiple investigations into his company and personal finances. And in the battleground of Georgia, prosecutors are investigating whether he and his allies broke the law by trying to overturn his election loss in that state, too.

The department’s inquiry into the Capitol attack is the largest criminal investigation in the department’s history. More than 900 people across the US are now facing charges for taking part in the violence, and prosecutors have indicated that hundreds more cases could be filed.

“We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we provided to aid in their work,” Thompson said.

The committee’s work over the past 18 months has been informed by about 1000 interviews, more than one million documents, about 100 subpoenas and countless public tips to a confidential hotline. The most powerful testimonies came from those within Trump’s own orbit, such as his former attorney-general Bill Barr, former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson, his then-legal counsel Pat Cipollone, and daughter Ivanka Trump.

Cassidy Hutchinson testifies at the House of Congress hearing into the riots to overthrow the US election.Credit: AP

The referrals mark the start of a bad week for the former leader. On Wednesday (AEDT) another congressional panel – the House Ways and Means Committee – will meet privately to discuss what to do with the six years of Trump’s tax returns it finally obtained after years of legal efforts by Trump to block their release.

The next day, the committee will hand down its multipart final report on the January 6 probe, which will also include numerous investigations to stop such an incident from happening again. In addition, jury selection began on Tuesday into the role of far-right group The Proud Boys in the capital riots.

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