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Tag: Capitol riot

  • Capitol riot: Mike Pence ‘tell the truth’ in Trump’s criminal investigation

    Capitol riot: Mike Pence ‘tell the truth’ in Trump’s criminal investigation

    Former US Vice-President Mike Pence has testified as part of a criminal probe into Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to avenge his loss in the 2020 election.

    According to sources quoted by the BBC’s US partner CBS News, Mr. Pence, 63, appeared before a federal grand jury in Washington, DC, for more than seven hours.

    He received a subpoena earlier this year to give testimony while being sworn in.

    Prosecutors questioned the suspects in a private setting.

    His appearance on Thursday came just hours after an appeals court rejected a last-ditch bid by Mr Trump’s legal team to stop Mr Pence from testifying.

    Mr Pence’s lawyers had also sought unsuccessfully to challenge the subpoena, arguing that his role as president of the Senate during his time in office meant he had congressional immunity.

    CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA – AUGUST 24: President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence greet delegates on the first day of the Republican National Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center on August 24, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The four-day event is themed “Honoring the Great American Story.” (Photo by David T. Foster III-Pool/Getty Images)

    His eventual testimony, which had been sought for months, is a major milestone in the two-year investigation which is being led by special counsel Jack Smith, a former war crimes prosecutor who was appointed to the role by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

    The investigation has been gathering evidence about whether Mr Trump and his allies broke federal law in their efforts to challenge the result of the 2020 election, which was won by President Joe Biden.

    It is also investigating the US Capitol riot on 6 January 2021, when Mr Trump’s supporters stormed the building in an effort to prevent the election result from being certified.

    Mr Pence, who like all vice-presidents was also president of the Senate – a mostly ceremonial role – could in theory have derailed the final certification of the election result and delayed the transfer of power.

    Mr Trump publicly pressured his vice-president to do so, and his refusal led him to lash out at Mr Pence.

    Trump supporters then chanted “hang Mike Pence” as they stormed Congress and marauded through the corridors of the Capitol building as politicians, including Mr Pence, sheltered inside.

    Mr Pence is considered a key witness in the investigation and, while it is not immediately clear what he told the grand jury, prosecutors will likely have asked him about his interactions with Mr Trump and his team in the days and weeks leading up to the riot.

    “We’ll obey the law, we’ll tell the truth,” Mr Pence said in an interview with CBS on Sunday. “The story that I’ve been telling the American people all across the country… that’ll be the story I tell in that setting.”

    US former president, Mike Pence

    Mr Pence has spoken publicly about the Capitol riot and the pressure he faced to challenge the election result. “President Trump is wrong. I had no right to overturn the election,” he said in a speech in February.

    In his memoir, So Help Me God, Mr Pence wrote that Mr Trump had attempted to pressure him into blocking the certification of the election result on the morning of the riot. “You’ll go down as a wimp,” the then-president apparently told Mr Pence.

    He has also accused Mr Trump of endangering his family as well as others who were at the Capitol, saying history will hold him “accountable”.

    Mr Pence is reportedly considering a presidential bid of his own in 2024, which would see him challenge his former boss directly for the Republican nomination.

    Mr Trump, who has already launched his bid to return to the White House, was in New Hampshire on Thursday for a campaign event. When asked by NBC News about Mr Pence’s testimony, he commented: “I don’t know what he said, but I have a lot of confidence in him.”

    The former president is facing other legal issues, including another federal investigation led by Mr Smith into the potential mishandling of classified documents.

    There is also a separate investigation in Georgia into alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election result.

  • Trump received $1.5 million three days after predicting arrest

    According to several media sites, former president Donald Trump raised $1.5 million in the three days following his projection on Truth Social that he would be detained on Tuesday.

    According to Fox News, Trump’s 2024 campaign acknowledged the amount on Wednesday. According to reports, the funds came from local donations.

    The same sum was raised over that time period, according to The Washington Post, which cited an unnamed individual with knowledge of the situation.

    The resulting average of $500,000 per day is about twice as much as the average daily income from the weeks prior to and following his announcement of his candidacy for president in November.

    The Trump campaign brought in $11.8 million in the six weeks before the announcement, averaging out at $280,000 a day. And in the six weeks after Trump announced his run, his campaign raised $9.5 million, or $226,000 a day.

    The former president’s funding boost came after he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday that he would be arrested Tuesday over the hush-money investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. It’s unclear what basis he had for the claim — his lead defense attorney told Insider on Saturday that the defense team hadn’t heard an arrest date from the Manhattan DA — but Tuesday came and went with no arrest.

    Trump urged supporters to “PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK” in his Truth Social post, which came amid rising indicators that he might soon be indicted by a New York grand jury over the Stormy Daniels hush-money case.

    As the anticipation of an indictment grew, Trump’s campaign capitalized by highlighting it in almost every fundraising message. The daily messages seen by Insider tell recipients that the “justice system has utterly COLLAPSED” and that they can be a “FOUNDING DEFENDER” by giving money to the former president.

    One such email asked supporters to sign a petition opposing a Trump arrest and afterward requested donations to his campaign.

    The former president’s fundraising efforts appeared on Truth Social as well.

    “If you are doing poorly, as so many of you are, do not send anything. If you are doing well, which was made possible through the great policies of the Trump Administration, send your contribution,” he wrote Monday. He reposted the same message Wednesday, making no mention of his own false arrest prediction.

    Trump has raised millions while casting himself as a victim of political persecution. In the weeks after he lost the 2020 election, he raised a reported $170 million off lies that the White House was stolen from him.

    He also told voters that their money would go to an “Official Election Defense Fund” for investigating the election, but the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot confirmed in June that no such fund ever existed. Most of the money instead went to Trump’s PAC, per the Post.

    Representatives for Trump didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside business hours.

  • Trump faces four criminal charges from the Capitol riot committee

    US congressional investigation into the Capitol riot last year has revealed that, former President Donald Trump should be charged with crimes such as insurrection.

    The justice department should bring charges against Mr. Trump, was the unanimous vote of the Democratic-led committee.

    A fresh video of former Trump aide Hope Hicks warning him about his legacy was also shown on the panel.

    On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters stormed Congress and prevented Joe Biden from being sworn in as president.

     

    Trump, who insists he did nothing wrong, attacked the panel in a statement, calling it a “kangaroo court.”

    After spending around 18 months investigating the riot, the House of Representatives select committee recommended at their final meeting on Monday that Mr Trump face four charges:

    The justice department – whose prosecutors are already considering whether to charge Mr Trump – does not have to follow a congressional committee’s referral.

    While the panel’s actions are mostly symbolic, the chairman described the proposed charges as a “roadmap to justice”.

    A justice department spokesman declined to comment on Monday about the referral.

    “An insurrection is a rebellion against the authority of the United States,” said congressman Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who serves on the committee.

    “It is a grave federal offence, anchored in the Constitution itself.”

    The panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans released their preliminary 161-page executive summary on Monday.

    It accused Mr Trump of a “multi-part conspiracy” to thwart the will of voters in the run-up to the Capitol riot and during the riot itself.

    The House committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help overturn his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the riot at Congress in a last-ditch bid to block the peaceful transfer of power to Mr Biden.

    The full report, spanning hundreds of pages, is due to be released on Wednesday.

    On Monday, the panel also released a new video from their deposition with longtime Trump aide Hope Hicks, who said she had warned Mr Trump that by continuing to make false claims about the election, he and his team were “damaging his legacy”.

    Mr Trump had shrugged off her concern, she said.

    The then-Republican president, she testified, “said something along the lines of, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter.

    “‘The only thing that matters is winning.’”

    The committee also criticised the president’s eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, a former White House aide, for not being “forthcoming” with investigators.

    Ms Trump and White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany “displayed a lack of full recollection of certain issues, or were not otherwise as frank or direct” as other aides to Mr Trump, the report said.

    Mr Trump’s presidential campaign, which he launched last month, released a statement accusing the committee of holding “show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history”.

    “This Kangaroo court has been nothing more than a vanity project that insults Americans’ intelligence and makes a mockery of our democracy.”

    A Trump bust being held up during the day of the riot at the US Capitol
    IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, A Trump bust being held up during the day of the riot at the US Capitol

    The committee also said it would refer four Republican members of Congress to the House ethics committee, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, for failing to comply with the committee.

    “If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,” said committee chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.

    “If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith,” he added.

    More than 900 people have been charged in relation to the Capitol riot.

    Source: BBC.com 

     

     

  • Capitol riot: Committee to seek charges for Trump – reports

    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 unprecedented 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 investigating Mr Trump’s role in the unrest – is not obliged to consider referrals from any congressional panel.

    Mr Trump denies wrongdoing. On Friday his spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement: “The January 6th un-Select Committee held show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history.”

    The select committee is scheduled to hold its final meeting on Monday when any charging recommendations would be unveiled.

    As well as insurrection, according to various outlets, the panel will suggest Mr Trump be charged with obstructing an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

    The nine panellists are expected to approve the final eight-chapter report, drawing on interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses, and submit it to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

    The full report will be made public on Wednesday, said chairman Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who is helming the select committee.

    California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, another member of the panel, told CNN on Friday that the lawmakers have “been very careful in crafting these [charging] recommendations and tethering them to the facts that we’ve uncovered”.

    The House select committee has argued Mr Trump spread claims that he knew were false about the 2020 presidential election being stolen, before pressuring state officials, the justice department and his own vice-president to help subvert his defeat. The panel accuses him of inciting the Capitol riot in a last-ditch bid to remain in power.

    The DoJ is already investigating the then-Republican president’s actions surrounding the riot.

    Seven days after the raid on Congress, the House impeached Mr Trump for a second time on the grounds of incitement of insurrection.

    Mr Trump, who is the only president to ever be impeached twice, was cleared by the US Senate.

    Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a former war crimes prosecutor to decide whether Mr Trump should be prosecuted.

    Jack Smith is tasked with determining if the 2024 presidential candidate should be put on trial for mishandling classified files that were recovered during an FBI search of Mr Trump’s Florida estate in August, or for encouraging the violent mob on 6 January 2021.

     

    Source: BBC

  • Trump ordered to testify to January 6 committee

    The congressional panel investigating last year’s Capitol riot has issued a legal summons ordering former President Donald Trump to testify to lawmakers.

    Addressing him, the document reads: “You were at the center of the first and only effort by any US President to overturn an election.”

    It goes on: “You knew this activity was illegal and unconstitutional.”

    A lawyer for Mr Trump accused the lawmakers on the committee of “flouting norms”.

    The former president has lambasted the inquiry as a ruse designed to distract voters from the “disaster” of Democratic governance with US midterm elections looming next month.

    Mr Trump could face criminal charges if he does not comply with the subpoena.

    He has until 4 November to provide documents to the 6 January committee, and must appear for deposition testimony on or about 14 November.

    If Mr Trump refuses to testify to Congress or hand over the requested material, the committee could refer the matter to the Department of Justice – potentially triggering criminal proceedings.

    The subpoena was issued just hours after former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was fined $6,500 (£5,800) and sentenced to four months in jail for contempt of Congress.

    He was convicted after refusing to give the committee testimony or documents.

    Another Trump aide, Peter Navarro, is due to stand trial for contempt of Congress next month after refusing to co-operate with a similar subpoena.

    The select committee is looking into Trump supporters’ violent storming of the US Capitol building on 6 January, 2021.

    The panel’s seven Democrats and two Republicans unanimously voted last week to force the Republican to testify about his role in the riot.

    Lawmakers say Mr Trump egged on his supporters to reject the 2020 presidential election result, leading them to storm the halls of Congress in an effort to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as the winner.

    In a letter that accompanied the subpoena, chairman Bennie Thompson and vice-chairwoman Liz Cheney said the committee had “assembled overwhelming evidence, including from dozens of your former appointees and staff, that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multi-part effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election”.

    “You took all of these actions despite the rulings of more than 60 courts rejecting your election fraud claims and other challenges to the legality of the 2020 presidential election, despite having specific and detailed information from the Justice Department and your senior campaign staff informing you that your election claims were false, and despite your obligation as President to ensure that the laws of our nation are faithfully executed,” the letter added.

    Mr Trump’s legal team slammed the subpoena.

    “We understand that, once again, flouting norms and appropriate and customary process, the Committee has publicly released a copy of its subpoena,” said lawyer David Warrington.

    “As with any similar matter, we will review and analyse it, and will respond as appropriate to this unprecedented action.”

    If Republicans retake control of the House of Representatives after November’s midterm elections – which is widely expected – the 6 January committee’s work will come to an end and the panel will be disbanded.

    Ms Cheney – the top Republican on the panel and the daughter of former Republican vice-president Dick Cheney – will leave in January after losing a primary race in August to a Trump-backed challenger. The committee’s only other Republican member, Adam Kinzinger, plans to retire at the end of this congressional session.

    Source: BBC