Three criminal charges against former President
Donald Trump are expected to be recommended by the congressional investigation
into the Capitol incident last year.
According to US media, a former US president will
face an extraordinary rebellion accusation from the House of Representatives
select committee.
The panel’s final report is anticipated to be
released the following week.
On January 6, 2021, a mob of Trump supporters
stormed the Capitol in an effort to prevent Joe Biden from being sworn in as
president.
The justice department, which is already looking
into Mr. Trump’s involvement in the rioting, is not required to take any
recommendations from congressional committees into account.
Trump disputes any misconduct. “The January 6th
un-Select Committee staged show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a
disgrace on this country’s history,” his spokesperson Steven Cheung said
in a statement on Friday.
On Monday, the select committee will convene for the
last time and provide any charging recommendations.
Several media sites have reported that the panel
would also recommend that Mr. Trump be prosecuted with obstruction of justice
and conspiracy to defraud the United States in addition to rebellion.
The final eight-chapter report, based on interviews
with more than 1,000 witnesses, is anticipated to be approved by the nine panelists
and sent to the Department of Justice (DoJ).
The whole report will be made public on Wednesday,
according to the select committee’s chairman, Mississippi Democrat Bennie
Thompson.
Another panel member from California, Zoe Lofgren,
told CNN on Friday that the legislators “have been extremely cautious in
developing these [charging] proposals and tying them to the facts that we’ve
learned.”
The House Select Committee has alleged that Mr.
Trump circulated rumors about a rigged 2020 election that he knew were untrue
before exerting pressure on state authorities, the justice department, and his
own vice president to assist in overturning his defeat. The panel charges him
of instigating the Capitol riot in an effort to hold onto power.
The Department of Justice is already looking into
what the then-Republican president did in relation to the unrest.
The House impeached Mr. Trump a second time for
inciting an uprising seven days after the attack on Congress.
The US Senate exonerated Mr. Trump, the first
president to have ever been twice impeached.
A veteran war crimes prosecutor was chosen by
Attorney General Merrick Garland last month to determine whether Mr. Trump
should be charged with a crime.
The goal for Jack Smith is to decide whether the
2024 presidential contender should be tried for improper handling of sensitive
documents that were discovered during an FBI investigation of Mr. Trump’s
Florida home in August, or for inciting the violent mob on January 6, 2021.