Benny Thompson and Liz Cheney had two jobs on Thursday night when a series of televised hearings began, hoping to prove that Donald Trump had spurred an attempted coup against the US government.
The Democrat and Republican, leading Congress’ investigation into last year’s attack on the US Capitol, aimed to provide a compelling account of the events of January 6, 2021 and lay the groundwork for a possible prosecution of the former president for his alleged role. .
With the first task, experts said, they have succeeded. Using a gruesome mix of video, audio and live testimony, the commission showed how far-right groups planned and staged a riot with the intention of halting Joe Biden’s certification as president.
They also revealed that Trump pushed them from his Twitter show and from the podium in front of the White House, and then watched the violence on television, raging against advisers who called on him to cancel his supporters.
However, their second task, based on Thursday night’s evidence, is likely to be more difficult. While Cheney claims that Trump “summoned the mob, gathered the mob and ignited the flames of this attack”, the commission has not yet proven that he was directly involved in a conspiracy with the rebels.
Thompson said there would be further evidence of contact between the rebels and Trump’s inner circle after the hearing. Legal experts say this can be crucial in any criminal case.
“What this commission has done in such a short period of time is historically unprecedented,” said Ankush Hardory, a former federal prosecutor. “But what you saw last night was how much they were hindered by the reluctance of the people around Trump to be honest and brave.
However, Thursday’s hearing did not pass without some frankness from the former president’s inner circle.
In recorded testimony, William Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, called the former president’s allegations that the election was rigged “nonsense.” Jason Miller, one of Trump’s closest aides, admitted that experts on the former president’s data had told him he had lost. Even Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, said she “accepted” Bar’s conclusions.
The Commission also provided the most comprehensive and comprehensible information on what happened on 6 January.
With the help of James Goldston, a former president of ABC News, the commission compiled a harrowing video of protesters moving toward the Capitol, storming it and raging inside.
The presentation uses footage taken by TV crews, protesters and documentary filmmaker Nick Questid, and combines them with audio recordings of employees working that day. “We are declaring it a riot,” an officer said at 2:39 p.m. “I need more support,” another shouted as he was flooded by the crowd. “We lost the line. We lost the line. “
And as the mob shouted obscene words and hurled shells at officers in front of them, the commission covered a well-known record of Trump talking about the attack later in the year. “They were peaceful people,” he said. “Love in the air, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Members also showed footage of contacts between the two far-right groups behind the violence: the Proud Boys and the Guardians of the Oath, the latter of whom marched in battle as they stormed the Capitol.
But despite the commission’s demonstrativeness, the question of the possible consequences for Trump remains unclear. One of the most important members of the audience for Thursday night’s show was Merrick Garland, Biden-appointed Attorney General, who was under pressure from progressives to bring charges against Trump.
Leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were key figures in the uprising, were accused of rioting, while Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, two former Trump aides, were accused of disrespecting Congress for refusing to testify.
But accusing the former president would be more difficult, legally and politically, experts say.
Supporters of Trump have already claimed that the commission is conducting a witch hunt. Their appeals will only deepen if the justice ministry charges the former president, but fails to prove in court that he spoke to the rebels or that he intended to invade the Capitol.
A big gap in the commission’s account was what Trump did in the 187 minutes between the start of the attack and a request to his supporters to “go home.”
Members made some enticing hints by painting him “shouting” at advisers who tried to get him to issue a statement, and even suggested he agreed with protesters calling for the execution of his vice president, Mike Pence.
But so far they have shown no contact between the president or his inner circle and the rebels themselves, evidence that would prove vital if criminal charges are to follow.
The committee also hinted that some of Trump’s relatives knew what would happen before it happened. “All hell will break out tomorrow,” Bannon said the day before. But members have not yet provided convincing evidence that Trump himself led the violence or intended it to happen.
Even if he is not tried, Democrats hope that these hearings could destroy his support in society and in Congress, just as Watergate’s televised hearings for Richard Nixon did 50 years ago.
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“One of [the committee’s] the work had to make a difference in the ballot box, “said Norman Eisen, a former U.S. ambassador who advised a congressional committee that held Trump’s first impeachment. “They had to show that the elections of 2022 and 2024 will be referendums on whether we want our country to follow the path of democracy or the path of Trumpery – and they did.
Part of the problem for committee members, however, is that, unlike Nixon, Trump has always done the things he has been publicly criticized for. He once said: “I can stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and I will not lose a single voter.
In fact, the most convincing evidence that he organized the coup attempt is from his own Twitter show. “A big protest in the District of Columbia on January 6,” he wrote on December 19. “Be there, it will be wild!”
Some lawyers believe that these hearings will differ from those of Watergate in how much has been done in secret rather than in public. But they warn that even if there has been no cover-up, Trump could still face criminal charges if it can be proven that he deliberately incited or helped organize a riot.
Eisen said: “You can only shoot people in the middle of Fifth Avenue so many times before someone arrests you and puts you in jail.
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