Will Trump Be Prosecuted of Criminal Charges for Storming Congress?

Former US President Donald Trump faces four charges for his involvement in the attack that his supporters launched on the Capitol (House of Representatives) on January 6, 2021.

On December 19, 2022, members of the US House Committee investigating the storming of Congress unanimously voted to “recommend” the prosecution of Trump and others who supported him criminally.

The Parliamentary Investigation Committee called on the Department of Justice to file criminal charges against Trump for his role in inciting the storming of the building after collecting evidence over the course of 18 months after summoning many officials and investigating, reviewing documents, and legal battles.

This is the first time in American history that Congress has recommended the indictment of a former president, according to the British newspaper, The Guardian.

The committee’s vote is not binding, and the matter is up to the Ministry of Justice, which appointed a public prosecutor to investigate independently, and will decide definitively whether or not to prosecute the former president, but the ministry cannot ignore the recommendation of the House of Representatives.

If Trump is convicted of the crimes the committee told him about, he could face more than 10 years in prison and large fines, according to the Guardian newspaper on December 19.

The penalty may be up to 20 years in prison, and a ban from running for political office, in addition to paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, according to the BBC website.

 

Indictment Evidence

The investigation committee, which consisted of nine members (7 Democrats and 2 Republicans), spoke about important evidence that ensured that Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power under the US Constitution.

The committee’s decision charged Trump with four criminal counts: obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and conspiracy to make false statements to the US government and incite insurrection or aid an insurrection.

The investigation committee called the January 6th, referring to the day when extremist supporters of the former president stormed the Congressional Building, confirmed that all roads lead to the trial of Donald Trump, according to what was published by CNN on December 20.

A member of the Parliamentary Investigation Committee of the Congressional storming incident, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, said that the committee’s report includes strong evidence incriminating former President Donald Trump.

He told CNN that the report includes enough evidence that Department of Justice investigators need to make a decision to convict Trump.

He explained that several pieces of evidence indicate that Donald Trump committed criminal offenses in connection with his efforts to overturn the election result. The evidence is contained in the report, and he believes it is sufficient to charge him.

He stressed that Trump tried in various ways to pressure state officials to find non-existent votes. He tried to interfere by obstructing a joint legislative session, and incited to attack the Congressional Building. He asked, “If this is not a criminal act, then what is the criminal act?”

Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said that no president has ever tried to steal a second term, despite overwhelming evidence of his loss.

He confirmed that Trump lost the 2020 elections and knew that, but he chose to try to stay in office through a multifaceted scheme to overturn the results and prevent the transfer of power to the winning president, according to the Guardian newspaper.

 

The future of Trump and the country

The results of the congressional investigation to refer Trump to a criminal trial may be the end of his political career if the Ministry of Justice officially raises these accusations.

Trump has long tried to portray the criminal and civil investigations and lawsuits against him as part of a partisan witch-hunt whose ultimate goal is to thwart his return to political power.

But the now-defunct congressional investigation, and the ongoing Justice Department investigation, suggest that he may be facing increasingly harsh political winds as he tries to prepare for a re-run for the presidency in 2024.

This is supported by recent opinion polls that confirm that he remains unpopular with large segments of the American public and that his support is declining even among Republican voters, according to the BBC website.

Since the accusations brought against Trump and his far-right supporters continue to promote conspiracy theories and victimhood, so Americans fear that they will not remain silent and stir up unrest.

This coincides with reports by the US Department of Homeland Security confirming that the country is on the verge of entering a second civil war due to the spread of extremist activities, of which a group of them stormed Congress.

This danger appeared after the presidential elections in which the current President Biden defeated Trump, and Americans feared that their country would witness a second civil war after the famous first that occurred as a result of conflicts between states (1861-1865).

The trial of those who stormed Congress did not assuage the fears of a potential civil war because its causes, most notably the sharp “political division,” are still lurking under the ashes, according to the National Interest website, December 3, 2022.

US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas warned on November 30, 2022, of the seriousness of the political division in his country and feared that this would lead to things getting out of control.

The minister’s warnings coincided with his ministry’s issuance of a periodic bulletin on domestic terrorism, the seventh since January 2021, concluding that the United States continues to face a dangerous threat environment, and the last warning related to the matter was on June 7, 2022.

He said in the warning that high political tensions in the country could contribute to the gathering of individuals to carry out violent acts, according to Fox News.

In its Bulletin on terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security said that lone attackers and small groups motivated by ideological beliefs and personal grievances continue to be an imminent and deadly threat to the homeland.

An investigation published by Newsweek magazine on December 20, 2021, monitored the presence of tens of millions of heavily armed Americans who believe that Trump was the winner in the past elections and that Biden “stole” it.

It warned that these people are already preparing for the 2024 elections, and if Trump ran (which is what happened) and lost, they will not allow what happened to take place again, which means that if he was excluded and imprisoned, they would be more ferocious.

The magazine’s investigation warned that those who own weapons belong to the overwhelming majority of whites from urban areas in the southern states and belong to the Republican Party and are supporters of Donald Trump.