After seven months of work, the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol accused former President Donald Trump Wednesday of attempting to defraud the nation.
However, it doesn’t have authority to charge Trump with a crime. So, what happens next?
As of Thursday, the committee is waiting for the court to review its claim, which was included in a legal filing Wednesday.
“The evidence supports an inference that President Trump…and several others entered into an agreement to defraud the United States by interfering with the election certification process, disseminating false information about election fraud, and pressuring state officials to alter state election results and federal officials to assist in that effort,” said the legal brief filed by the committee in the United States District Court of California Southern Division.
“The Select Committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the brief also said.
During the deadly Jan. 6, 2020 insurrection in Washington D.C., Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol. Before the riot, Trump made claims about voter fraud at a nearby rally.
Trump hasn’t backed down on his claims, though there has been no evidence of election fraud.
“They’re the ones who tried to stop the peaceful transfer with a rigged election,” he said in a statement issued on the one-year anniversary of the insurrection.
According to NBC News, Trump attacked the panel in a statement Thursday and repeated his election fraud claims.
“We look forward to the Court’s review of our filing as the Select Committee’s investigation moves forward,” said a committee statement regarding its filing.
This brief signifies the most direct line the committee has tried to draw between Trump, his allies and potential criminal activity surrounding the 2020 election,” said NBC News. However, it is mostly about John Eastman, a lawyer who argued that former Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the results of the 2020 election and is currently under investigation by the State Bar of California.
Rioters at the Jan. 6 insurrection called for Pence to be hanged if he didn’t overturn the results even though he did not have the power to do so.
Previously, Eastman was ordered by a judge to produce thousands of pages of records to the Jan. 6 select committee, according to Politico. He has attempted to shield these records through attorney client privilege. Last month, Eastman filed court papers detailing his role as Trump’s lawyer.
“The Select Committee’s brief refutes on numerous grounds the privilege claims Dr. Eastman has made to try to keep hidden records critical to our investigation,” said a statement from the committee Wednesday. While the committee is not conducting a criminal investigation, it said Eastman’s privilege claims “raise the question whether the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applies in this situation.”
According to The New York Times, the committee could eventually make a criminal referral to the Justice Department against Trump and his allies, which would pressure Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to take up the case.
So far, the Justice Department “has said little of substance, about whether it might ultimately pursue a case,” said the outlet.
It had, however, charged more than 225 defendants who participated in the Jan. 6 riot as of the one-year-anniversary of the insurrection.
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