U.S. lawmakers urge insurrection charge against Donald Trump for Jan. 6 Capitol riot

United States lawmakers are recommending that former president Donald Trump be criminally charged for his role in inciting a mob of supporters to storm Capitol Hill to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The House of Representatives committee investigating the riot of Jan. 6, 2021, met Monday ahead of the release of its final report to sign off on the recommendations it will be making to federal agencies, including the Federal Election Commission and the Department of Justice.　

The committee said there is evidence to support charges against Trump for insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the federal government, and conspiracy to make false statements.　

The recommendations, which will go to Department of Justice prosecutors, come after witness testimony that Trump called for protesters to gather in Washington at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6 — the same time that Congress was meeting to ratify Joe Biden’s presidential election victory — and refused for 187 minutes to make a public statement calling them to order after the crowd broke through police barriers and breached the Capitol Building.　

The committee members laid out their factual findings that Trump overruled senior advisers in order to put undue pressure on then Vice-President Mike Pence, on state lawmakers, and bureaucrats in the Department of Justice to have the election results declared fraudulent. Also, the committee found that he spurred his supporters on to violence and that he shirked his duties as the nation’s top lawmaker to bring the violence to heel.

Under U.S. law, the charge of insurrection can be laid against an individual who provokes, assists or engages in rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or its laws.

Charges of obstruction of an official proceeding apply to those who “by threats of force, or by any threatening letter or communication” influences, obstructs or impedes the work of a federal government agency or a legislative body.

The charge of conspiracy to defraud the federal government relates to two or more individuals cheating the government out of money or property but also interfering or obstructing legitimate government activity.　　　

The referral on conspiracy to make a false statement relates to testimony that Trump and his backers created a false version of electoral college voters and distributed them in order to cast the veracity of the election results into doubt.

The criminal referrals against Trump are only legal recommendations and they do not mean the federal prosecutors will bring charges against Trump.

But the Justice Department has brought charges against hundreds of individuals already for participating in the 2021 protests. Last month, Stewart Rhodes, leader of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia, was convicted on charges of seditious conspiracy.

The trial of five members of the Proud Boys, another far-right group listed in Canada as a terrorist organization, began Monday on seditious conspiracy charges over allegations they led and carried out acts of violence against authorities as part of a plan to break into the Capitol Building and overturn the election results by force.

The riot resulted in the deaths of several protesters and law enforcement officers.

Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who was assaulted by two protesters in the uprising, died on Jan. 7, the result of a stroke.

Four protesters were also killed: Air Force veteran Ashli Babbitt was shot by a police officer; Rosanne Boyland was crushed in a stampede; Kevin Greeson died of a heart attack; and Benjamin Philips died of a stroke.

Two other police officers, Jeffrey Smith and Howard Liebengood, took their own lives in the days after Jan. 6, 2021.

Allan Woods is a Montreal-based staff reporter for the Star. He covers global and national affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @WoodsAllan

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