WASHINGTON
Friday marks two years since supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol in Washington, DC after he urged them to descend on the seat of Congress to block lawmakers from making official the election of Trump’s successor, Joe Biden.
The ensuing mayhem and violence was historic. Barricades were overrun as rioters clashed violently with police, smashing the Capitol’s windows and invading Congress as lawmakers evacuated and went into lockdown.
Five people died as a result of the violence on Jan. 6, 2021, while in the aftermath four law enforcement officers died by suicide. The Capitol building, seen by many as a symbol of American democracy, suffered damage not seen since over 200 years ago, during the War of 1812, as invading British forces burned it to the ground.
In the two years since, Trump has not put forward any evidence to substantiate his claims of widespread voter fraud – allegations he used to try to stoke public anger and draw enraged rioters to the nation’s capital. Meanwhile, attempts to hold those responsible for the violence have continued within the American legal system.
More than 950 people have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the deadly riot, including more than 284 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, according to the Justice Department.
A bipartisan House of Representatives committee that probed the Jan. 6 attack also just released its final report on Dec. 23, just weeks before the panel dissolved with the convening of the 118th Congress.
After an 18-month investigation with 10 public hearings and more than 1,000 interviews, the committee recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump.
Lawmakers recommended prosecutors pursue four charges against the former president: inciting, assisting, or aiding insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, and conspiracy to make a false statement.
But what is the next step in the investigation into the Jan. 6 riot? What awaits Trump after announcing he is mounting a bid to retake the White House in 2024?
According to David Super, a professor of law and economics at Washington’s Georgetown University, Trump faces “serious legal jeopardy.”
Trump is already at “great risk” due to numerous other investigations, including those into attempts to meddle in Georgia's 2020 election results, and his company being found guilty of tax fraud in New York, Super said, stressing that “either of those investigations could ensnare him, largely independent of the January 6 Committee's report.”
But the committee found that the former president was much more intimately involved than had previously been understood in efforts to overturn the election illegally, Super told Anadolu Agency.
“Every indication is that the Justice Department already has far more evidence than the committee did, but the Justice Department generally is not allowed to release that evidence publicly in advance of an indictment,” he added – unlike the committee, which released thousands of pages of interview transcripts and other evidence before it wrapped up its work.
What does committee report mean in American legal system?
One of the effects of the committee making its findings public is that it will cause “much less shock and resistance” among the general public if Trump is charged by the Justice Department, Super argued.
“Before the committee's hearings and report, the Justice Department might have worried that charging the former president would be too shocking to the country and should be avoided regardless of the evidence,” he said.
The committee’s recommendation is not binding on the Justice Department, and prosecutors will make their own assessment independent of the lawmakers’ report.
For Super, the committee’s findings “may give the Justice Department more freedom to follow the evidence it finds without being perceived as partisan,” he said, citing two Republican representatives who sat on the committee, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, endorsing its work and final report.
Cheney and Kinzinger sacrificed their political careers due to their steadfast criticism of Trump and his movement and through their work on the committee. The latter earned them a censure from the Republican Party, which otherwise refused to take part in or cooperate with the investigation.
Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, left Congress after losing the Republican primary last August against Trump-backed candidate Harriet Hageman. Kinzinger also won’t be a part of the 118th Congress as he announced last year that he would not seek reelection.
Republicans retake US House
In the midterm elections last November, Republicans gained a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, which forced the Jan. 6 committee to end its work.
Asked how this will affect the investigation of that fateful day, Super said it “changes little,” since the committee was “largely finished in any event.”
“It seems likely that Republican House committee chairs will try to conduct hearings to distract from the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and may even try to show that prior investigations of those efforts were biased or corrupt in some way,” he said.
“I doubt that will have much impact because at this point, the investigation is in the hands of career prosecutors in the Justice Department, which generally need not be accountable to Congress,” he added.
Some House Republicans have suggested that they would oppose raising the US debt limit unless all investigations of former President Trump are defunded, but Super said those efforts are unlikely to gain traction due to opposition from the business community and “many Senate Republicans.”
Trump’s inner circle
The committee’s final report also accused Trump and his “inner circle” of engaging in “at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation” targeting state legislators and election administrators to overturn the election results.
Asked about the investigation into Trump’s inner circle, Super said he “strongly suspects” some of them have already been cooperating with the Justice Department “in exchange for reduced charges or immunity from prosecution.”
“For others, I think indictments and criminal trials are likely,” he continued.
Addressing the possible culpability of the former president’s daughter and son-in-law, both of whom served in the White House, Super said: “I strongly doubt that the Justice Department will indict Ivana Trump or Jared Kushner even if it has sufficient evidence to do so. Too much of the public likely would object, even though they voluntarily took senior positions in the administration.”
