WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives committee investigating the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol asked federal prosecutors on Monday to charge Donald Trump with obstruction and insurrection for his role in sparking the deadly riot.

The Democratic-led select committee’s request to the Justice Department is non-binding, but comes as a special counsel is overseeing two other federal probes of the Republican former president related to his attempt to overturn his 2020 election defeat, and the removal of classified files from the White House.

The panel asked the Justice Department to charge Trump with obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States, making false statements and aiding or inciting and insurrection.

“An insurrection is a rebellion against the authority of the United States. It is a grave federal offence, anchored in the constitution itself,” said Representative Jamie Raskin, a Democrat on the select committee, as he announced the charges.

Monday’s meeting was the last final public gathering of a nine-member panel that spent 18 months probing the unprecedented attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by thousands of Trump backers, inspired by his false claims that his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud.

The committee also said it referred four Republican House members, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, to the chamber’s ethics committee, for failing to comply with its legal subpoenas as it investigated the attack.

“If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,” said Representative Bennie Thompson, the select committee’s chairperson, as the meeting began.

Slamming Trump for summoning the mob to the Capitol nearly two years ago, Thompson also criticised the former president for undermining faith in the democratic system.

“If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith,” Thompson said.

Trump has already launched a campaign to seek the Republican nomination to run for the White House again in 2024.

Series of investigations

The select committee’s work is one of a series of investigations into the riot. Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the incident and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.

“Among the most shameful of this committee’s findings, was the President Trump sat in the dining room off the Oval Office, watching the violent riot at the Capitol on television,” Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee and its vice chairperson, said.

A jury has already found members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia guilty of sedition for their role in the attack. Special counsel Jack Smith was appointed last month to lead federal probes into Trump.

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2022