It’s time for the Justice Department to decide whether former President Donald Trump and his key allies should face legal consequences for their closely scrutinized efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
In the waning days of the 117th Congress, as the House of Representatives prepares to shift from Democratic to Republican majority control, the high-profile Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the United States Capitol has dropped its final 845-page report after 18 months of investigation. The January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol killed many people and sent shockwaves to the nation about the depth of political polarization across the country.
The committee’s report makes a massive argument that Trump and some of his top aides and advisers refused to accept reality and worked hard to overturn the results of the November 2020 election. The report includes page after page of testimony from participants on Jan. 6 about what the report calls the “big lie” that rampant voter fraud disinherited Trump. of his real victory in the ballot.
The executive summary states, “This report also examines the legal implications of the conduct of Donald Trump and his co-conspirators and includes criminal referrals to the Department of Justice with respect to President Trump and certain other individuals.” The criminal referrals are based on three relevant federal district court rulings and detail how the facts found additional support.
Department of Justice assessment of specific criminal charges. To assist the public in understanding the nature and significance of this material, this report also contains sections outlining how the Commission assessed the credibility of its witnesses and suggesting that the Department
Justice further considered potential efforts to obstruct our investigation. We also note that more than 30 witnesses have invoked Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and others have invoked executive privilege or flatly refused to appear (including Steve Bannon, who has since been convicted of contempt of Congress).”
The Jan. 6 investigation created a number of key television moments in 2022 as the hearings garnered live coverage from news outlets around the world. Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who lost her re-election bid and will leave Congress next month, has emerged as the conscience of the GOP with her core stance against everything Trump stands for.
Among the most shameful findings of the hearings was this: President Trump sat in the dining room outside the Oval Office watching the violent riot at the Capitol on TV. For hours, he would not issue a public statement ordering his supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol, despite urgent pleas from White House staffers and dozens of others to do so, Cheney wrote in her foreword to the report. His family, his lawyers in the White House, and just about everyone around him knew that this simple act was decisive. For hours, he didn’t. During this time, law enforcement officials have been attacked and seriously injured, the Capitol has been invaded, voter counts have been halted and the lives of those in the Capitol are at risk. In addition to being illegal, as described in this report, this was an absolute moral failure – and a clear neglect of duty. Evidence of this can be seen in the testimony of the White House counsel and many other White House witnesses. No man who acted in this way at that moment in time could ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again. He is unfit for any position.”
Cheney served as vice chair of the committee alongside Democrat from Mississippi Benny Thompson. Thompson brought calm, respectful, but directed cross-examination of witnesses and candid summaries to the two-plus hour hearings that received live television coverage in August and October of this year. Thompson’s role in directing the committee greatly elevated his profile as a politician even after representing his state in the US House of Representatives since 1993.
We can never surrender to the enemies of democracy. “We can never allow America to be defined by the forces of division and hatred,” Thompson wrote in his foreword to the final report. “We can never relent in the progress we have made through the sacrifice and dedication of true patriots. We cannot and will never relent in our pursuit of a more perfect union, with liberty and justice for all Americans.”
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