Time is running out for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee investigating the assault by Donald Trump supporters on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. In a move “historical”Friday, October 21, she subpoenaed the former president to appear “on or around November 14”.
Donald Trump will have to submit documents to the commission and testify under oath on the events of January 6, which aimed to prevent Congress from certifying the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election. Under federal law, refusing to respond to a congressional subpoena is punishable by one to 12 months in prison, but requires a prior vote of the House of Representatives to forward the case to the Justice Department. . The commission of inquiry requires Donald Trump to hand over the requested documents by November 4, and to appear before November 14.
After a televised hearing, the House of Representatives committee responsible for shedding light on the role of the ex-president in the January 6 attack surprised everyone by voting unanimously Mr. Trump’s summons. The one who openly flirts with the idea of representing himself in 2024 had immediately renewed his attacks against an investigation qualified as “fiasco”without revealing how he was going to answer it.
This commission, made up of seven elected Democrats and two Republicans, has already questioned more than a thousand witnesses, including two children of Donald Trump, and gone through tens of thousands of documents, but has come up against the refusal to cooperate of some relatives. Former adviser Steve Bannon, considered to be the architect of Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, was also sentenced on Friday to four months in prison for refusing to respond to his summons.
The specter of midterm elections
The commission is engaged in a race against time: if the Democrats lose control of Congress during the midterm elections on November 8, it risks being dissolved by the new Republican majority. Its two leaders, elected Democrat Bennie Thompson and Republican Liz Cheney, therefore formally summoned Donald Trump in just three weeks. “We agree that subpoenaing a former president is an important and historic action and we do not take it lightly”they wrote to him.
But, they added, “we have evidence that you personally orchestrated and oversaw a campaign to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and prevent the peaceful transfer of power”and this resulted “on a bloody attack on the Capitol”.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of Donald Trump supporters convinced by his allegations of “election fraud” had sown chaos in the temple of American democracy, when elected officials certified the victory of his Democratic rival Joe Biden. The Republican, who had urged his supporters to “beat like the devils”immediately faced an impeachment trial in Congress, but was acquitted thanks to his party’s senators.
This did not end the case: in its final report, the commission could recommend that he be indicted. The decision will ultimately rest with the Minister of Justice Merrick Garland, a prudent and methodical man who “does not exclude anything”.