Attorney General’s Turn – Trump Charged With Capitol Storming

The commission is investigating the storming of the Capitol on January 6 last year that killed several people. Witnesses said the attack was part of a wider “coup attempt” by Trump and his attorney John Eastman. “There’s a good chance the Justice Department will charge Mr. Trump,” said Kevin O’Brien, a former New York City attorney. “The legal argument is sound and would convince a jury — provided prosecutors can link Trump and Eastman’s plans to thwart the vote count and the Capitol riots.”

The committee has always indicated that it wishes to leave the decision on the charges to the responsible authorities. He has hinted that he will indict the ex-president for at least two crimes: obstructing electoral counting and involvement in a criminal conspiracy against the United States.

Trump did nothing to stop violence
Weeks before the storm, Trump fooled his supporters into believing he had been stripped of victory. At the same time, polling station officials, polling stations and representatives of the judicial authorities were harassed and intimidated. The outgoing president called on his supporters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 and encouraged the crowd to march to the Capitol as the election results were confirmed there. Text messages show that the then president did nothing for hours to stop the violence, while staffers tried to get him increasingly desperate to stop the mafia.

Trump wanted to grab the driver’s wheel to drive to the Capitol
Tuesday’s explosive testimony further distressed the ex-president. According to a former White House aide, after his January 6, 2021 address, Trump attempted to take the driver’s wheel of his presidential limousine and drive to the Capitol. Trump also knew that some of his supporters were armed at the time, the witness said. Trump’s lawyers claim that he really believed in voter fraud and therefore tried to protect voters. Testimony in the commission of inquiry, however, suggests that Trump knew very well about his defeat — especially as his closest confidants told him time and again.

Majority of US citizens support Trump trial
Trump is a “clear and current danger” to American democracy, said retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, a star in conservative legal and political circles and one of its most powerful witnesses. Nearly 60 percent of Americans believe the ex-president should be tried, according to a survey by TV channel ABC News and polling agency Ipsos. For Attorney General Merrick Garland, the charge is not so easy to answer.

“Inflated law enforcement could empower Trump and even help him get reelected,” writes Edward Luce, a columnist for the Washington Financial Times. Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor in San Diego, California, doubts the attorney general has “the guts” for such a fight. “It would be a first to indict a previous president, and you need an aggressive prosecutor who is willing to take on a difficult and politically charged indictment,” Rahmani said. “I don’t think Merrick Garland is that prosecutor.”

According to Nicholas Creel, a law professor at Georgia College and State University, there is no way to prosecute the ex-president. To go unpunished would be a mockery of the central tenet of the US judiciary that “no one is above the law,” Creel argues.

“An indictment would violate the established norm not to prosecute former presidents and would almost certainly provoke a mass uprising from his supporters,” the lawyer said. “But the alternative is to let him commit a coup without any consequences. That would hurt the nation far more than his persecution.”