MEMBERS of the House committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot said they had uncovered enough evidence for the justice department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against former president Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Democratic representative Adam Schiff, a committee member who also leads the House Intelligence Committee, said: “I would like to see the justice department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump.
“There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election that I don’t see evidence the justice department is investigating.”
The committee held its first public hearing last week, with members laying out their case against Trump to show how the defeated president relentlessly pushed his false claims of a rigged election and how he intensified a scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
Additional evidence is to be unveiled in hearings that will demonstrate how Trump and advisers engaged in a “massive effort” to spread misinformation and pressured the justice department to embrace false claims.
Committee members indicated yesterday that their most important audience over the course of the hearings ultimately may be the US justice department’s chief law enforcement officer, attorney general Merrick Garland, who must decide whether his department can and should prosecute Trump.
