Donald Trump should not be allowed to hold public office again after his role in the 2021 assault on the United States Capitol, concludes a report from the legislative commission that investigated the event.
Text: RFI / AFP
The recommendation heads a list of proposals in the 845-page document aimed at ensuring there is no repeat of the deadly riot the committee accuses the former president of orchestrating in a failed bid to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
“Our country has come too far to allow a defeated president to become a successful tyrant by subverting our democratic institutions (and) fomenting violence,” panel chairman Bennie Thompson said in the introduction to the report released Thursday by the night.
The document calls for legislation so that Trump and others who “participated in the insurrection” cannot hold office, “whether federal or state, civilian or military.”
Trump announced that he intends to run for the White House again in 2024.
The report was the culmination of 18 months of work by congressional investigators, who interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses to establish the root cause of the attack, which they blamed squarely on the Republican billionaire.
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The committee – made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans – also recommended reforms to the electoral law, a federal crackdown on extremist groups and the designation of congressional certification of the presidential election as a “special national security event” to the par of the annual State of the Union address.
The former president’s party opposed every step of the investigation and the change of legislature in January, when the Republicans will have a majority, raises doubts about the possibility of the recommendations being adopted.
Trump denounces a “witch hunt” both in this case and in other criminal and civil investigations into his business practices and his efforts to overturn his electoral defeat in the state of Georgia.
In its last public meeting on Monday, the panel recommended that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump for four possible crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the United States, making false statements to the government and inciting insurrection.
The panel began turning over evidence to independent prosecutor Jack Smith, who is overseeing federal investigations into Trump’s role in the riots and his handling of government secrets improperly stored at his Florida home.
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