Releasing its 880-page final report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, the highly biased and partisan House Select Committee found 76-year-old former President Donald Trump responsible for planning and orchestrating the Jan. 6, 2021 capitol riots. Whatever security breach took place with the D.C. and Capitol Police, the Committee ignored the lack of coordination with federal intel and law enforcement agencies including the FBI. Trump was charged with “incitement of insurrection” Jan. 13, 2013, tried in the U.S. Senate and acquitted on Feb. 13. Nine House Impeachment managers led by Rep. Jamie Rasking (D-Md.) insisted Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 speech in the morning on the Ellipse in D.C. incited the violence that resulted in the “insurrection.” So once the Arlington, Va. FBI office found the Jan. 6 riots were planned for months, the question arose why the lack of proper security on Jan. 6?
In the 880 page report only 18 pages were and a few footnotes addressed why a lack of adequate security prevailed on Jan. 6. When President Joe Biden’s inauguration took place Jan. 20, there was no security breaches around the Capitol, all because law enforcement took proper precautions before the Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration. House Select Committee has no complete explanation why the Jan. 6, 2021 perfunctory Electoral College certification didn’t have the same or better security that existed on Inauguration Day? Most of the 880-page report focused on Trump’s negligence in not taking action Jan. 6 to stop the riots. House Select Committee members blamed Trump for “dereliction of duty,” gross negligence, but, more importantly, aiding-and-abetting lawbreakers in Jan. 6 riots. No one on the Committee for the last year-and-half questioned Trump’s lack of culpability.
Committee members led by Co-Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) insisted that Trump planned and orchestrated the insurrection with right with groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, to prevent the certification of the Electoral College vote. No doubt some of the Jan. 6 rabble-rousers thought they could disrupt a ceremonial Constitutional process, not realizing that the certification would go on. Many on the Committee thought that Trump’s insistence and repeated claim of massive Electoral Fraud, prompting the right wing groups of attack the Capitol. Not one Democrat or Republican on the House Select Committee said the riots were a backlash for the four months in 2020 of left wing riots after George Floyd’s death around the country. No one on the Committee entertained the idea that white nationalists lashed out on Jan. 6. House Select Committee only blamed Trump’s “Big Lie” on election fraud.
No one on the House Select Committee mentioned a thing about how universal mail-in ballots on Nov. 3, 2020 gave Democrats and 25% advantage over Republicans. With ballots going out to every registered voter, there was no way to verify the signature of registered voters. Trump’s presidential election adviser former Chapman University Law Professor John Eastman said it was impossible to ever certify authenticity of the Nov. 3, 2020 vote because of universal mail-in balloting . Trump claims, of course, went beyond Eastman’s legitimate concerns, fueling conspiracy theories that Dominion voting machines were altered to add votes to Biden’s totals. No government body or court found that Trump’s proved his claims of massive voter fraud. Democrats on the House Select Committee couldn’t prove that Trump claims of voter fraud pushed right wing militia groups to act violently.
House Select Committee made recommendations to the Department of Justice to charge Trump with (a) assisting an insurrection in his bid to subvert the transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden, (b) Trump provided aid-and-comfort to the mob ransacking the Capitol to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election, (c) obstruction Congressional Joint Session to certify the election and (d) make false statements to the National Archives and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Each of the charges has no proof, only wild conjecture House Select Committee said Trump inaction on Jan. 6 to stop the lawbreakers lent aid-and-comfort to the insurrectionists. On that point, the House Select Committee said Trump violated the 14th Amendment clause preventing any citizens participating in an insurrection from seeking federal office. Justice Department officials won’t find it easy to prove the Committee’s charges.
When it comes to the lawbreaking of groups and individuals on Jan. 6, they’re all paying a draconic price for their crimes. When Oathkeeper’s 56-year-old founder Stewart Rhodes III was convicted of seditious conspiracy Nov. 29, the DOJ found him, not Trump, guilty of the crimes on Jan. 6, 2021. House Select Committee members can’t have it both ways, charging and convicting Rhodes of “seditious conspiracy” but trying charge Trump with the same thing. House Select Committee insists that Trump could have called off the dogs on Jan. 6, 2021 but chose to watch the Capitol engulfed in riots. If Trump would have called off the riots earlier, Democrats would have said “I told you so,” Trump was leading the pack. Trump’s beliefs in widespread election fraud does not constitute “incitement of insurrection” of anything else. Holding irrational beliefs is not against the law.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
