Jan 6 panel lays out indictment of Trump, "must be held accountable"

By Al Mayadeen Net
Source: Agencies
22 Jul 2022 07:53

An indictment was laid out by a Mississippi congressman.

Donald Trump.

The House committee is holding former US President Donald Trump accountable for refusing to condemn or halt the violence that ensued on January 6, 2021, in a Republican bid to overturn the election results.

The committee investigating the assault on the US Capitol laid out a prime-time indictment on Thursday against Trump, stressing that he should be held accountable for gross dereliction of presidential duty.

Bennie Thompson, the committee's chairman, spoke at a televised finale of the public hearings, accusing Trump that he "recklessly blazed a path of lawlessness and corruption" when he plotted the overturning of the election results.

Thompson, a congressman from Mississippi, addressed the committee through a screen because he had COVID-19. He demanded that there be accountability for what he called an attack on democracy.

Trump, according to White House aides testifying on January 6, watched the attack unfold on television and ignored the repeated pleas to tell his supporters to leave.

"From the comfort of his dining room he watched on TV as the attack escalated," said Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the panel.

"He sent tweets that inflamed," Kinzinger said. "For three hours he refused to call off the attack."

"Donald Trump's conduct on January 6 was a supreme violation of his oath of office and a complete dereliction of his duty to our nation," Kinzinger said. "It is a stain on our history."

Thompson said Trump "did everything in his power to overturn an election -- he lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath."

"He tried to destroy our democratic institutions," he said. "There needs to be accountability. Accountability under the law, accountability to the American people... all the way up to the Oval Office."

Liz Cheney, one of the committee panelists, addressing Trump's bid for another run in 2024, said that "every American must consider this: 'Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of January 6 ever be trusted with any position of authority in our great nation again?'"

Earlier, lawmakers provided a minute-by-minute account of Trump's actions between the time he gave a controversial speech to his supporters near the White House, announcing that the November 2020 election was stolen, until the moment when he finally told the rioters they were "very special" but should go home.