“I think the president violated multiple criminal laws,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff, a California Democrat and committee member, said on DailyExpertNews’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “And I think you should be treated like any other American who breaks the law, and that is, you should be prosecuted.”
Mr. Schiff explained why he thought a charge of insurrection was appropriate.
“In terms of criminal law, if you can prove that someone incited an insurrection — that is, they incited violence against the government, or they gave aid and comfort to those who did — that violates that law,” said Mr. Schiff. “And if you look at Donald Trump’s actions, and you compare them to the statutes, that’s a pretty good match. I realize that the statute has not been used for a long time. But when have we had a president who essentially instigated an attack on his own government?”
The House created the Jan. 6 committee after Senate Republicans used a filibuster to reject a proposal to create an independent commission to investigate the attack, which left more than 150 police officers injured when pro-Trump rioters interrupting Mr Trump’s peaceful transfer of power. Trump to Mr. Biden.
The committee — made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans — consistently broke new ground for a congressional inquiry. Staffed with more than a dozen former federal prosecutors, the panel set a new production standard for holding a congressional hearing. It also significantly pre-empted a parallel Justice Department investigation into the January 6 events, with federal prosecutors later interviewing many of the same witnesses Congress had already spoken to.
Lawmakers on the panel also believe they played an important role in bringing the issue of threats to democracy into the minds of voters, who dismissed many election deniers during the November midterm elections.
On Monday, the panel will take another unprecedented step for a legislative body: voting on criminal references against a former president. Representative Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and the committee chair, has said the panel is considering referrals to “five or six” entities, including the Justice Department, the House Ethics Committee, the Federal Election Commission and bar associations.
Among those under investigation by the panel are five congressional Republicans who refused to comply with subpoenas from the committee.