- House committee members on January 6 said they discovered enough evidence to indict Trump.
- Rep Adam Schiff said he would like to see “any credible allegation of criminal activity” investigated.
- Rep Jamie Raskin said the panel last week discussed why they believed Trump had violated several criminal statutes.
House jury members who investigated the Capitol uprising Sunday said the jury uncovered enough evidence to allow the Justice Department to mull a criminal charge against former President Donald Trump over his efforts to invalidate the election victory. by President Joe Biden, according to The Associated Press.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California, who sits on the panel and also heads the House Intelligence Committee, said he wanted to see the department examine Trump’s efforts in trying to stop Biden’s victory certification.
“I’d like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegations of criminal activity by Donald Trump,” he told ABC News on Sunday. “There are some actions, parts of these different lines of efforts to overturn the elections that I don’t see evidence that the Justice Department is investigating.”
Last week, the committee held its first public hearing – in prime time – in which panel members articulated what they put together as they probed the uprising and Trump’s role in provoking the violence. Members spoke of the former president’s insistence that the election was stolen from him despite a slew of advisers privately telling him there was no evidence of full-scale fraud.
In upcoming hearings this week, the jury will reveal evidence pointing to Trump and several of his advisers who have tried to “spread misinformation” and get the Justice Department to approve Trump’s baseless election claims.
Panel members on Sunday pointed to US Attorney General Merrick Garland as key to determining whether or not Trump will be prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland on Sunday said he would not put undue pressure on Garland, but felt the jury alleged why Trump may have violated several criminal statutes.
“I think he knows, his staff know, the US lawyers know what’s at stake here,” Raskin told CNN on Sunday. “They know its importance, but I think they are rightfully paying close attention to the precedents in history as well, as to the facts of this case.”
Garland has not yet indicated how he will handle the committee’s findings as Trump has been mocking a potential White House campaign of 2024 since leaving the Oval Office last year.
In a March ruling, a California federal judge said Trump “likely” thwarted Congress when he tried to stop the certification of the Electoral College results on January 6.
According to a New York Times report in April, the ruling prompted some panel members and staff members to say there was enough paper trail “to justify asking for court proceedings for obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiring to defrauding the American people “.
Trump has rejected any kind of wrongdoing regarding the elections.
Schiff said the department should probe “credible evidence” of criminal conduct.
“Once the evidence has been accumulated by the Justice Department, it must make a decision whether they can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the guilt of the president or anyone else,” Schiff said. “But they need to be investigated if there is credible evidence, which I think there is.”