US panel probing Capitol riot recommends charges of insurrection, obstruction against Trump
US federal prosecutors have been asked by the House of Representatives panel probing the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol to charge former president Donald Trump with four crimes for his role in sparking the deadly riot. The charges include obstruction and insurrection.
The Democratic-led select committee's request to the Justice Department - after more than 1,000 witness interviews and the collection of hundreds of thousands of documents - marked the first time in history that Congress has referred a former president for a criminal prosecution, reports Reuters.
The request does not compel federal prosecutors to act, but comes as a special counsel is overseeing two other federal probes of Trump related to the Republican's attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat and the removal of classified files from the White House.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The committee - made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans - has been widely criticised by Republicans as being partisan. Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairperson, slammed Trump for summoning the mob to the Capitol and criticized him for undermining faith in the democratic system by repeating false claims of fraud.
The committee asked the Justice Department to charge Trump with four potential felonies: obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements, and aiding or inciting an insurrection.
"An insurrection is a rebellion against the authority of the United States. It is a grave federal offense, anchored in the Constitution itself," Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democratic select committee member, said as he announced the charges.
The attack on 6 January 2021 started shortly after Trump spoke nearby falsely claiming Joe Biden had stolen the 2020 election.
On 6 January, 2021, Donald Trump gave a fiery speech to his supporters near the White House and publicly chastised his vice president, Mike Pence, for not going along with his scheme to reject ballots cast in favor of Democrat Joe Biden.
He then waited hours to make a public statement as thousands of his supporters raged through the Capitol, assaulting police and threatening to hang Pence.
