Takeaways in Jan. 6 court filing
House panel eyes Trump ‘criminal conspiracy’
WASHINGTON – The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has previewed some of its findings in a federal court filing, and investigators for the first time said they have enough evidence to suggest then-president Donald Trump committed crimes.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that Trump will be charged, or even that the Justice Department will investigate. But the legal document offers an early look at some of the panel’s likely conclusions, which are expected to be submitted in coming months. The committee has interviewed more than 650 witnesses as it investigates the violent siege by Trump supporters, the worst attack on the Capitol in more than two centuries.
In the 221-page filing, the panel said it has evidence that the defeated Republican president and his associates engaged in a “criminal conspiracy” to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory.
The filing came in response to a lawsuit from John Eastman, a lawyer and law professor who was consulting with Trump while attempting to overturn the election and who is trying to withhold documents from the committee.
Eastman’s attorney, Charles Burnham, responded to the legal filing by defending Eastman’s efforts to protect his documents through attorney-client privilege. Investigating lawmakers argue there is a legal exception allowing a lawyer to disclose communications when they might be related to ongoing or future crimes.
Takeaways from the Jan. 6 committee’s court filing:
A case for fraud and obstruction
The committee says it has evidence of three crimes, all of which are related to Trump’s activity, and his coordination with Eastman, in the run-up to the insurrection.
In a “conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the committee argues that evidence it has gathered supports an inference that Trump, Eastman and several other allies of the former president “entered into an agreement to defraud the United States.”
The panel says Trump and his allies interfered with the election certification process, disseminated misinformation about election fraud and pressured state and federal officials to assist in that effort.
The panel also asserts that Trump obstructed an official proceeding, the joint session of Congress where the Electoral College votes are certified. The committee said Trump either attempted or succeeded at obstructing, influencing, or impeding the ceremonial process on Jan. 6 and “did so corruptly” by pressuring Vice President Mike Pence to try and overturn the results as he presided over the session. Pence declined.
The last charge the committee lays out is “common law fraud,” or falsely representing facts with the knowledge that they are false. Trump embarked on a wide-scale campaign to convince the public and federal judges that the 2020 election was fraudulent and that he, not Biden, won the Electoral College tally.
Court arguments, not charges
While the document marks the committee’s most formal effort to link the former president to a federal crime, Congress does not have the power to bring criminal charges.
Still, members of Congress can formally refer crimes to the Justice Department, if they think they have sufficient evidence. It is unclear if the committee will take that step.
Pressuring Pence
Much of the committee’s filing focuses on the expansive, ultimately unsuccessful effort by Eastman to convince Trump and the White House that there was a viable legal avenue for his baseless election fraud claims. In a series of memos ahead of Jan. 6, Eastman pushed for Pence to intervene in his ceremonial role and halt the certification of the electoral votes, a step Pence had no legal power to take and refused to attempt.
A ‘serpent in the ear’
On Jan. 6, as Pence presided over the congressional session and later hid inside the Capitol from rioters calling for his hanging, Eastman and Jacob exchanged a heated series of emails.
The emails give an extraordinary window into the extent of the pressure campaign – which continued into the evening, even after the rioters had been pushed out and the frazzled Congress reconvened to certify the results.
As the rioters broke into the Capitol, Pence’s chief counsel, Jacob, wrote to Eastman that “I respect your heart” but that the legal framework he was putting forward was “essentially entirely made up.”
He added, “And thanks to your (expletive), we are now under siege.”
Eastman angrily responded that “the ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary.”
Jacob, who was sheltering with Pence in the Capitol at the time, apologized. But he did not let up.
“The advice provided has, whether intended or not, functioned as a serpent in the ear of the president of the United States, the most powerful office in the entire world,” Jacob wrote Eastman. “And here we are.”
As Congress reconvened that evening, Eastman wrote Jacob to “implore” that Pence adjourn the count to delay the certification. That did not happen, and Congress certified Biden as the winner in the early hours of Jan. 7.
New questions for lawmakers
While Eastman repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during his interview with the committee, members and staff asked him hours of questions anyway. The resulting transcript provides new clues about what lawmakers are investigating.
One of the biggest unanswered questions about Jan. 6 concerns the role that GOP lawmakers may have played. The committee has asked several House Republicans for information about their communications with Trump that day, and the transcript shows interest in GOP senators as well.