Is this finally the beginning of the end of troubledTrump?

IF America’s January 6 select committee has its way, this will be Donald Trump’s last Christmas a free man.

Following an 18-month investigation interviewing thousands of witnesses, this week the panel concluded the former president should face four criminal charges over the deadly Capitol riots.

If prosecuted and found guilty, it could see Trump behind bars for up to 40 years.

The committee’s recommendation cannot be underestimated.

Never before in American history has Congress referred a former president for criminal prosecution.

Now it is up to the US Justice Department to decide whether they follow up on the panel’s recommendation that he be charged with obstructing an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement, and insurrection.

It is an extremely tough call as debate rages over whether it is right to indict a former president and current presidential candidate.

But few can deny the panel’s findings.

They provided a searing picture of what occurred on January 6, 2021, and how Trump was its architect, so desperate was he to hold on to power.

New details, including videotaped testimony from his former aides, showed he had been told he’d lost the election but refused to accept defeat to Joe Biden.

Only this week, it emerged Trump’s longtime adviser Hope Hicks, texted him in the days before the deadly insurrection, urging him to tell his supporters not to be violent, but he refused.

She recalled the then President telling her: “The only thing that matters is winning.”

Hicks was just one of a handful of Republicans who dared to testify against Trump – the party’s leader – to prevent such shameful scenes ever playing out again.

All did so at substantial personal sacrifice, putting their country ahead of themselves. Others showed the political cowardice America is now haunted by.

So many people who could and should have testified refused to do so.

More than 30 witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Trump, who denies any wrongdoing, released a statement slamming the panel as a “kangaroo court”. But this is not the end of Trump’s troubles. It is only the start.

Government prosecutors are investigating not only his efforts to thwart the election results but also his mishandling of presidential records and classified material that he took with him when he left the White House.

The state of Georgia is barreling ahead with a probe into his efforts to reverse his election loss in that state. In addition, his company, the Trump Organisation, was convicted in New York this month of tax fraud.

On Tuesday, Congress met privately to discuss what to do with the six years of Trump’s tax returns over which he fought so hard not to release.

In all, it has seen someone who was once the world’s most powerful man left with a shrunken presence on the political stage, who will hopefully never be handed such power again.

Looks like Father Christmas delivered karma early.

SO Amber Heard finally settled her defamation case against ex-husband Johnny Depp paying him $1 million.

The actor originally filed a claim against his ex-wife in March 2019 after she published an op-ed in the Washington Post in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse”.

The Aquaman actress had been on the hook for $15m in damages after the jury sided mostly with Pirates of the Caribbean star Depp.

However, despite the settlement, Heard stressed there are “no restrictions or gags with respect to my voice moving forward”.

And there was me hoping we’d Heard the last about this toxic marriage.

If prosecuted and found guilty, it could see Trump behind bars for up to 40 years

AMERICAN scientists have made history by successfully producing a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in more energy than was used.

The hope is that one day it could deliver nearly limitless, carbon-free energy, displacing fossil fuels and other traditional energy sources and helping to save the planet.

One thing is sure. A new tax is also being born.