The Jan. 6 Investigation Heads To A Critical Stage
Fred Wertheimer’s Weekly Note | April 7, 2022
The Jan. 6 Committee in the House is investigating the events surrounding the violent insurrection attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and the events leading up to it.
The Committee has interviewed hundreds of witnesses, including recently the President’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, who each appeared before the Committee for hours. The Committee also made referrals to the Justice Department this week for criminal contempt of Congress for Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino Jr., and earlier for Steve Bannon, for refusing to appear before the Committee in response to subpoenas. Bannon has been indicted for his actions.
The Committee also sued John Eastman – the lawyer who designed the Trump legal strategy to overturn the presidential election – to obtain documents the Committee believes may show that Trump and Eastman engaged in a criminal conspiracy to subvert the democratic process.
When Eastman tried to prevent access to documents the Committee subpoenaed, Federal District Judge David Carter rejected Eastman’s efforts to shield the documents from the Committee. In doing so Carter issued a powerful opinion, writing:
“Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021.”
The Committee is now headed to a critical stage. It is expected to begin public hearings in May with the goal of telling Americans the story of how Trump and his allies attempted to steal the 2020 presidential election and prevent a duly elected President, Joe Biden, from taking office.
This was the first attempted political coup in our nation’s 233-year history. It is essential that we learn the full story of what happened and how it happened – to help ensure that it can never happen again.
The Jan. 6 Committee has the opportunity and the responsibility to make this story crystal clear to the American people. It is of overriding importance for the Committee to use the public hearings to present any evidence that establishes that Trump engaged in criminal conduct in his relentless efforts to overturn the election.
This evidence could play a critical role in publicly establishing that Trump had criminal intent and engaged in criminal conduct in his attempt to overturn the election.
Also, it is critically important for the Committee to document the full scope of the political coup that was attempted – a coup attempt that began well before the Capitol insurrection on January 6 – and the efforts that day by Republican Members of Congress to block the certification of Biden as President.
The coup attempt began the day after the election with Trump’s Big Lie that he won the election and it was stolen from him – a blatantly false claim that Trump has made incessantly ever since.
As we watch the brutal, murderous battle between autocracy and democracy taking place in Ukraine, it is important to recognize that Trump unleashed a nonmilitary battle between autocracy and democracy here at home. Trump lost that battle with his unsuccessful attempt at a coup. We must do all we can to ensure that such a battle can never succeed here.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter here. Or, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
