January 6 panellists: enough evidence to indict Donald Trump
- Congressman Adam Schiff said he would like the Justice Department to ‘investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump’
- The committee held its first public hearing last week, with members laying out their case against Trump to show how he pushed his false claims of a rigged election
Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said on Sunday they have uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against former US president Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The committee announced that Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses expected to testify at a hearing on Monday that focuses on Trump’s effort to spread lies about a stolen election. Stepien was subpoenaed for his public testimony.
As the hearings unfold, congressman Adam Schiff said he would like the department to “investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump.” Schiff, who also leads the House Intelligence Committee, said that “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.”
The committee held its first public hearing last week, with members laying out their case against Trump to show how the defeated president relentlessly pushed his false claims of a rigged election despite multiple advisers telling him otherwise and how he intensified an extraordinary scheme to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
Additional evidence is set to be released in hearings this week that will demonstrate how Trump and some of his advisers engaged in a “massive effort” to spread misinformation, pressured the Justice Department to embrace his false claims, and urged former vice-president Mike Pence to reject state electors and block the vote certification on January 6, 2021.
Stepien, a long-time Trump ally, is now a top campaign adviser to the Trump-endorsed House candidate in Wyoming’s Republican primary, Harriet Hageman, who is challenging congresswoman Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair and a vociferous critic of the former president. A Trump spokesman, Taylor Budowich, suggested that the committee’s decision to call Stepien was politically motivated.