Donald Trump.Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
In an 845-page final report released Thursday night, the bipartisan House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riots offers nearly a dozen recommendations it believes will help ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. Among them: thatDonald Trumpbe barred from ever holding office again.
The committee draws on Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states that anyone who has previously sworn an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof” can be disqualified from holding future federal or state office.
The report further calls on Congressional committees to “consider creating a formal mechanism for evaluating whether to bar those individuals identified in this Report under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment from holding future federal or state office.”
The committee’s final report came days after it recommended the Department of Justice lay fourcriminal chargesagainst the 75-year-old former president for allegedly obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the government, inciting an insurrection and conspiracy to make a false statement.
The House select committee’s final meeting.Lo Scalzo Jim/Pool/ABACA/Shutterstock
The news is especially remarkable considering Trump is currently running for president again, announcing last month that he waslaunching a 2024 campaign.
Among the report’s other recommendations are that the joint session of Congress for counting electoral votes be designated a “National Security Event” in the future and that Congress consider strengthening the penalties that face those who threaten federal election workers.
In a series of posts shared on his social media site Truth Social, Trump referred to the committee’s investigation as a “WITCH HUNT,” again voicing his false claims that he won an election he lost more than two years ago — the same claims he made hours before a group of his supporters breached the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021.
“The change in the Election was Complete & Total, with Millions of votes switched, at least 17%. TRUMP WON, BIG!” Trump wrote on Friday.
Donald Trump.Joe Raedle/Getty Images
And while Trump — who lost both the popular vote and the electoral college toJoe Bidenin 2020 — has continued to publicly claim he won the election, he told a different story in private, the committee details in its report.
In her meeting with the committee, former White House communications director Hope Hicks said Trump described one of his own election lawyer’s claims about foreign powers interfering in the election as “crazy.”
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During a phone call with attorneySidney Powell, Trump allegedly mocked the lawyer while his phone was on mute.
“While she was speaking, the President muted his speakerphone and laughed at Powell, telling the others in the room, ‘This does sound crazy, doesn’t it?’ " the report says.
source: people.com
