Friday, March 29

The commission investigating the assault on the Capitol formally summons Trump to testify


The legislative commission investigating the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 has formally summoned former United States President Donald Trump this Friday to testify under oath and deliver documents. The panel has given Trump until November 4 to present documents, while he will have to declare “from or around the 14th” of that month.

Trump’s false shots after the assault on Capitol Hill: “I don’t want to say that the elections are over”

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Said commission voted in favor of summoning Trump to offer his testimony in his last public session held on October 13.

“Orchestrated and intentional” intent

The commission has also disclosed the content of the letter that its president, Democrat Bennie Thompson, and its vice president, Republican Liz Cheney, have sent to the former president, where they highlight the “central role” he played in the effort ” orchestrated and intentional” to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which he was defeated by the current president, Joe Biden. In addition, they highlight the role he played in “blocking” the transition of power.

Specifically, the commission accuses Trump of disseminating false information that electoral fraud occurred, which he was unable to demonstrate in court by not providing evidence, to annul the result of the vote.

It also considers that the former president sought to “corrupt” the Department of Justice, in addition to pressuring local officials and legislators to alter the results, summoning tens of thousands of his supporters that January 6, inciting violence in messages on their networks social during that date and refuse to disperse their supporters.

Thompson and Cheney indicate in the letter that the commission has collected “overwhelming evidence,” some of it from “dozens” of people who worked for or were appointed by Trump, showing that the former president “personally orchestrated and oversaw” efforts to overturn elections and obstruct a peaceful transition of power.

They also recall that it is not the first time that a president has been cited, given that there is a precedent of several country leaders who have been asked to present evidence before Congress.

The commission unanimously approved summoning Trump just over a week ago, after more than a year of investigation and after calling hundreds of former officials and advisers to his Administration to testify.

After that vote, Trump responded on his social network, TRUTH, and in a letter sent to the commission, attacking the work of the panel and offering indications that he does not intend to collaborate. What is not very clear is what can happen in this case and what the next steps of the commission would be.

On January 6, 2021, some 10,000 people, most of them Trump supporters, demonstrated in front of the Capitol and about 800 stormed the building while Biden’s electoral victory was ratified. There were five deaths and some 140 officers injured.

This same Friday, a federal court in Washington has sentenced Steve Bannon, who was an adviser to the former president, to four months in prison for refusing to collaborate in the investigation. Last July, Bannon was found guilty by a jury of refusing to appear before the legislative commission that analyzes the assault on the Capitol and to provide them with some documents.

The documents seized from Trump included some about Iran and China

In parallel, the Washington Post revealed this Friday that some of the classified documents recovered by the FBI at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residential complex in Palm Beach, Florida, included highly sensitive intelligence about Iran and China, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The US media reports that, specifically, the seized material included some secret documents that described intelligence work in relation to China and at least one of them described Iran’s missile program.

During its August search, the FBI found classified and secret documents that Trump allegedly took with him when he left the White House in January 2021. The US Department of Justice is investigating whether Trump broke the law by taking them and if anyone obstructed his research.



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