Jan. 6 Panelists Urge DoJ to Probe ‘Credible Evidence’ of Trump’s Role in Deadly Insurrection
22:55 GMT 12.06.2022 (Updated: 22:57 GMT 12.06.2022)
© AP Photo / Ross D. Franklin
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The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the US Capitol held its first public hearing last week, with lawmakers of the 9-member panel arguing that then-US President Donald Trump “lit the flame” and bears some degree of responsibility for the deadly 2021 insurrection.
As the bipartisan House select committee heads into its second public hearing, members of the panel are directly calling on the US Department of Justice to investigate “any allegation of criminal activity” waged against former US President Donald Trump.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a panelist and chair of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s “This Week” that certain details unearthed in the congressional probe may be of interest to federal prosecutors.
“I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump,” Schiff told ABC Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz. “There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the [2020 presidential] election that I don’t see evidence the Justice Department is investigating.”
Schiff went on to say that the presence of “credible evidence” should compel the DoJ to launch a probe into the 45th president of the US.
“Once the evidence is accumulated by the Justice Department, it needs to make a decision about whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the president's guilt or anyone else's,” Schiff said.
According to the lawmaker, one of the most compelling pieces of evidence was the fact that several “members of Congress were seeking [presidential] pardons.”
“Why would members do that if they felt that their involvement in this plot to overturn the election was somehow appropriate?” Schiff posed.
No US President, sitting or former, has ever been indicted.
January 6 panelist Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) also appeared on a Sunday talk show and proclaimed the House select committee has enough evidence to prove Trump “absolutely” knew he fairly lost the 2020 election, despite continuing to perpetuate the “Big Lie” that the process was riddled with widespread voter fraud.
“I think we can prove to any reasonable, open-minded person that Donald Trump absolutely knew because he was surrounded by lawyers,” Raskin told Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think any reasonable person in America will tell you, he had to have known he was spreading a ‘Big Lie.’ He continues to spread it to this very day. He continues to foist that propaganda on his followers.”
Raskin also noted that US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has said he is not feeling any political pressure related to the congressional probe, and his staff are well aware of “precedent in history” and “what’s at stake here.”
Thursday kicked off the first of seven public hearings, with US Capitol Police Officer (USCP) Caroline Edwards testifying that the event was a chaotic “war scene.”
Edwards, one of several officers injured amid the deadly insurrection, said she felt adrenaline kick in after regaining consciousness from being struck with a bike rack and knocking her chin on a handrail.
“I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene,” the USCP Officer testified, adding that she was “slipping in people’s blood.”
The second hearing is scheduled for Monday, June 13.
