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To charge or not to charge: the Trump dilemma roiling America
In their comments to the congressional committee investigating the deadly violence, White House and Trump campaign staff, lawyers and even family members have drawn the contours of a possible prosecution, outlining potential presidential misconduct culminating in the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
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In this file photo taken on March 28, 2016, US Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland waits for a meeting with US Senator Benjamin Cardin on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. President-elect Joe Biden has selected Garland as his attorney general, officials familiar with the selection process said on Wednesday, Biden is expected to announce Garland's appointment on Thursday.
(AFP/Brendan Smialowski)
A
chilling portrait of a US president who knew he'd lost an election but tried to steal it anyway has emerged in testimony on the Capitol assault, posing a perilous question: should prosecutors indict Donald Trump?
In their comments to the congressional committee investigating the deadly violence, White House and Trump campaign staff, lawyers and even family members have drawn the contours of a possible prosecution, outlining potential presidential misconduct culminating in the riot at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The picture they have painted is that it was part of a broader "coup" attempt led by the defeated president and his lawyer John Eastman.
"The odds are in favor of the Justice Department indicting Mr. Trump," Kevin O'Brien, a former assistant US attorney in New York who now specializes in white-collar criminal defense, told AFP.
"The legal case is sound and would be compelling to a jury, assuming prosecutors can establish a link between the plans of Trump and John Eastman to thwart the counting of electoral votes on the one hand, and the insurrection at the Capitol building on the other."
The committee's official line has always been that it will leave charging decisions to the proper authorities.
But it has heavily hinted it will accuse Trump of at least two felonies -- obstructing Congress's counting of electoral votes, and joining a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States.
