Members of Jan. 6 committee claim there’s enough evidence to indict Trump
Members of the House select committee investigating last year’s riot at the US Capitol on Sunday claimed they have enough evidence for federal prosecutors to indict former President Donald Trump.
California Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff called for the Justice Department to “investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity, on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else.”
“The rule of law needs to apply equally to everyone,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“There are certain actions, parts of these different lines of effort to overturn the election that I don’t see evidence the Justice Department is investigating,” he said, adding.
Schiff is a member of the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, and was part of the first public hearing held on the events last week.
Members are making the case that Trump pushed lies about fraud in the 2020 election and helped incite his supporters to breach the Capitol in an attempt to stop President Biden’s victory from being certified. Trump denies any wrongdoing.
More evidence will be released when the hearings continue this week, and the committee said that Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses set to testify on Monday.
“Once the evidence is accumulated by the Justice Department, it needs to make a decision about whether it can prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt the president’s guilt or anyone else’s,” Schiff said Sunday. “But they need to be investigated if there’s credible evidence, which I think there is.”
The committee broadcast a dramatic montage of video clips from the riot in their primetime hearing on Thursday, which was watched by more than 20 million people.
The opening hour of the hearing concluded with the 11-minute video, parts of which were played during Trump’s impeachment trial last year.
The second hour of the hearing featured testimony from documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who trailed members of the far-right Proud Boys group as they stormed the building.
US Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a brain injury after being knocked unconscious when her head hit a flight of steps during a struggle, also testified.
“What I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I’d seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes. There were officers on the ground, you know, they were bleeding, they were throwing up,” Edwards said.
Last week, Biden said that he believed the hearing would show a “flagrant violation of the Constitution.”
With Post wires
