It says the former president “oversaw” efforts to boost fake electors.
The House committee investigating the Capitol riot has concluded its investigation with a clear message: The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was the fault of one man — Donald Trump.
“The central cause of Jan. 6 was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed,” its 845-page report says. “None of the events of Jan. 6 would have happened without him.”
The panel recommends that Donald Trump be barred from holding office in the future.
“Our institutions are only strong when those who hold office are faithful to our Constitution,” Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee, writes in the report.
“Part of the tragedy of Jan. 6 is the conduct of those who knew that what happened was profoundly wrong, but nevertheless tried to downplay it, minimize it or defend those responsible,” she adds.
A premeditated campaign to seize power
The committee’s report says that the former president “oversaw” efforts to boost fake electors in seven of the states he lost, and attempted to “transmit false Electoral College ballots to Congress and the National Archives” despite his lawyers’ concerns. He and his closest allies spent the time between Election Day and January 6 targeting key election officials in “at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation.”
This campaign involved phone calls, social media posts, texts, and 68 meetings aimed at senior state officials, CNN notes. Per the report, Trump “spearheaded outreach aimed at numerous officials in States he lost but that had GOP-led legislatures, including in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona.”
Perhaps most notoriously, the former president personally told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger: “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have because we won the state.”
None of this came about by accident, or came as a surprise to Trump or his inner circle. “President Trump’s decision to declare victory falsely on election night and, unlawfully, to call for the vote counting to stop, was not a spontaneous decision. It was premeditated,” the report states.
A roundup of corrupt allies
The report also implicates the lawyers who took part in Trump’s nefarious schemes and recommends that they face consequences too. It says: “Those courts and bar disciplinary bodies responsible for overseeing the legal profession in the states and the District of Columbia should continue to evaluate the conduct of attorneys described in this Report”
It calls for the DOJ to evaluate specific attorneys who have “conflicts of interest.”
While John Eastman is already famous for his step-by-step memo outlining how then-Vice President Mike Pence might overturn the election, credit for the fake electors plan goes to a lesser-known conservative attorney: Kenneth Chesebro.
“The fake elector plan emerged from a series of legal memoranda written by an outside legal advisor to the Trump Campaign: Kenneth Chesebro,” the report says.
“Chesebro – an attorney based in Boston and New York recruited to assist the Trump Campaign as a volunteer legal advisor – was central to the creation of the plan,” it continues. “Memos by Chesebro on November 18th, December 9th, and December 13th, as discussed below, laid the plan’s foundation.”
A dire week for Trump
The House panel’s report comes just three days after it voted to refer Trump to the Justice Department for potential prosecution. The panel has accused Trump of inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an act of Congress and another federal crime. While the recommendation doesn’t carry legal weight, it sends a powerful message that the House committee firmly believes he has committed serious crimes.
Committee Chairman and Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson said on December 19 that he has “every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a road map to justice, and that the agencies and institutions responsible for ensuring justice under the law will use the information we’ve provided to aid in their work.”
