He is at the heart of the drama which has sparked unprecedented violence against American elected officials. The House Committee investigating Donald Trump’s role in the assault on the Capitol voted unanimously on Thursday to subpoena the former president to appear before its members.
Donald Trump “is THE person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6th. So we want to hear it,” panel leader Bennie Thompson said during a public hearing. “He has to be accountable. He is held accountable for his actions,” he added.
But it’s also about the commission “doing everything it can to tell the fullest story possible and provide recommendations to help ensure nothing like January 6 happens again in the future.” future,” he continued.
VIDEO. Capitol Attack: Trump Must Be Held Accountable, Inquiry Says
The mission of the panel, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, is to shed light on the behavior of the president before, during and after the attack on Capitol Hill, which shocked the world.
“A premeditated plan” by Trump?
On that day, January 6, 2021, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the seat of Congress to try to prevent elected officials from certifying the victory of his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. The billionaire continues to maintain against all evidence that the ballot was “stolen” from him.
Thursday, before his shock announcement, the commission had unrolled the thread of events as drawn by its investigations, showing that the ex-president had planned “well in advance” to declare himself victorious in the 2020 election, before even if the results are not known.
“His intention was clear, ignore the rule of law and stay in power,” insisted Republican Adam Kinzinger. The elected democrat Zoe Lofgren evoked “a premeditated plan of the president to declare his victory, whatever was the true result”. Her victory speech “was planned well in advance, before the votes were counted”, she added.
“Fuck the vote”
In support of their statements, the elected officials projected several videos of the ex-president, some of his relatives or former employees of the White House. In images shot just before the 2020 presidential election by a Danish team for a documentary, we can hear Roger Stone, a longtime ally of the former Republican president, say that he doesn’t care about the vote.
“Fuck the vote, let’s go straight to violence,” he said. Roger Stone, who has not been charged in connection with Jan. 6, disputed the authenticity of the videos, saying they had been manipulated.
The commission also replayed a recording of a call from Donald Trump to Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, in which the ex-president says he “needs” some 11,000 ballots in his name – a enough numbers to beat his rival Joe Biden in this southern state.
Donald Trump accused of inflaming the crowd
The commission also unveiled elements from hundreds of thousands of pages provided by the Secret Service, the elite police responsible for the close protection of high state officials. The elected officials want to understand why certain SMS from agents sent on the day of the assault have been deleted.
The documents confirm evidence presented at previous hearings that Donald Trump inflamed the crowd of his supporters despite being told of the potential for violence, lawmaker Adam Schiff said.
Since its creation, the commission has questioned more than a thousand witnesses, including two children of Donald Trump, and peeled tens of thousands of documents.
The investigative report is due to be made public by the end of the year, but likely not before the November 8 parliamentary elections that will determine which party will control Congress for the remainder of President Biden’s term.
Members of the panel have openly suggested that Justice Secretary Merrick Garland should indict Donald Trump in connection with the attack on the Capitol. The commission itself has not officially said whether it will recommend referrals to justice.