By Ken Zino
The House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol alleges that four criminal statutes were defied by Trump. The committee unanimously voted to refer the former president for prosecution to the Justice Department. Among their charges is aiding an insurrection -- an effort to hold Trump directly accountable for his supporters who stormed the Capitol.
“In structuring our investigation and hearings, we began with President Trump’s contentions that the election was stolen and took testimony from nearly all of the president’s principal advisors on this topic. We focused on the rulings of more than 60 federal and state courts rejecting President Trump’s and his supporters’ efforts to reverse the electoral outcome”, the committee said in the executive summary.
“Despite the rulings of these courts, we understood that millions of Americans still lack the information necessary to understand and evaluate what President Trump has told them about the election. For that reason, our hearings featured a number of members of President Trump’s inner circle refuting his fraud claims and testifying that the election was not in fact stolen.”… Even key individuals … ultimately admitted that they lacked actual evidence sufficient to change the election result, and they admitted that what they were attempting was unlawful,” the committee said.
This Begs Questions
The biggest one: “Is the Justice Department Properly Named?” The answer to that lies in the future – maybe distant at DOJ’s pace -- when it acts or refuses to act on an overwhelming body of evidence that Trump is a criminal. Given the devastating case the 1/6 committee assembled means the given name “Justice” is in doubt in my mind.
How about the “Ethics Committee” of Congress?
The 1/6 committee subpoenaed several members, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Reps. Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, and Andy Biggs to obtain information related to the investigation.
The Committee noted “Representative McCarthy privately confided in colleagues that President Trump accepted some responsibility for the attack on the Capitol…
…“Jordan was a significant player in President Trump’s efforts. He participated in numerous post-election meetings in which senior White House officials, Rudolph Giuliani, and others, discussed strategies for challenging the election, chief among them claims that the election had been tainted by fraud.”…
“Rep. Perry was also involved in early post-election messaging strategy. Both Reps. Jordan and Perry were involved in discussions with White House officials about Vice President Pence’s role on January 6th as early as November 2020…
“Rep. Biggs was involved in numerous elements of President Trump’s efforts to contest the election results … Biggs texted Mark Meadows, urging him to ‘encourage the state legislatures to appoint fake electors … Rep. Biggs told Meadows not to let President Trump concede his loss. Between then (December 2020) and January 6th … Biggs coordinated with Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem to gather signatures from Arizona lawmakers endorsing fake Trump electors. He also contacted fake Trump electors … seeking evidence related to voter fraud …
“To date, none of the subpoenaed members has complied with either voluntary or compulsory requests for participation” the 1/6 committee said. “The rules of the House of Representatives make clear that their willful noncompliance violates multiple standards of conduct and subjects them to discipline. Willful non-compliance with compulsory congressional committee subpoenas by House members violates the spirit and letter of House Rule XXIII, Clause 1, which requires House members to conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.” As a previous version of the House Ethics Manual explained, this catchall provision encompasses “flagrant’ violations of the law that reflect on ‘Congress as a whole,’ and that might otherwise go unpunished,” the committee said.
Well, awaiting action if any by the alleged Ethics Committee means it is only a temporary moniker to me. Is it really worthy of the name?
I’m hoping that the Institutions guarding our Democracy are called what they really are.
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What's Next?
Just in time before the Democratic Party hands over a thin majority of the House of Representatives to the Republican Party’s thin majority in the 118th Congress, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol has issued four criminal referrals to the Justice Department.
It is now in the hands of the DOJ’s special counsel, Jack Smith, appointed in November. Smith already has subpoenaed state and local officials in Georgia, New Mexico, Nevada, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the seven states targeted by ex-President Trump’s allies in their attempt to overturn President Biden’s victory. Oh, and, there’s also that issue of confidential government documents seized from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago by the FBI on the special counsel’s plate.
So, happy 2023. Where do you think this is going? Enter your thoughts in the Comment section below or in the right column if more appropriate, or email editors@thehustings.news.