US Capitol riot probe slams Trump inaction, urges accountability

Former National Security Council member Matthew Pottinger (L) and former deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews

The House committee probing the assault on the US Capitol laid out a searing, prime-time indictment on Thursday of Donald Trump's refusal to halt or condemn the violence and insisted he should be held accountable for a gross dereliction of presidential duty.

Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, speaking at the televised finale of a series of public hearings, said Trump "recklessly blazed a path of lawlessness and corruption" as he sought to overturn the results of the 2020 US election.

During a two-and-a-half-hour hearing, lawmakers presented testimony from White House aides who said that Trump watched the Capitol attack unfold on television and ignored their repeated pleas to tell his supporters to leave.

"He sent tweets that inflamed," Kinzinger said. "For three hours he refused to call off the attack."

Thompson said Trump "did everything in his power to overturn an election -- he lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath.

With Trump mulling another White House run in 2024, Republican vice chair Liz Cheney said "Every American must consider this: 'Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?'"

Outtakes were played from a message taped by Trump the next day, in which he refused to stick with a written script on a teleprompter. "I don't want to say the election's over," he said, rejecting that phrase from the script.

Two former White House officials -- deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews and Matthew Pottinger, who served on the National Security Council -- testified about their decision to resign on January 6.

"His refusal to act and call off the mob that day and his refusal to condemn the violence was indefensible," she said.

"That was the moment that I decided that I was going to resign," he said.

Previous committee hearings focused on Trump's attempt to sway election officials in swing states that Biden narrowly won and put pressure on Pence.

Members of right-wing militia groups the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and other Trump supporters saw the tweet from the president as a "call to arms," lawmakers said.

The 76-year-old Trump was impeached for a historic second time by the House after the Capitol riot but was acquitted by the Senate, where only a handful of Republicans voted to convict him.

The committee may issue criminal referrals to the Justice Department, leaving it up to Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide whether Trump or others should be prosecuted for the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

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