After being contradicted by his vice-president, Mike Pence, Donald Trump suffered a new setback.

The former US president and his allies took part in criminal activities in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election, the parliamentary committee charged with investigating the assault on the US Capitol said on Wednesday evening.

The commission has enough evidence to "conclude in good faith that the president and his campaign members engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," she wrote in a brief obtained by multiple sources. American media.

The commission's statements do not form its final conclusion, as the investigation is still ongoing.

It is no less damning against Donald Trump, who fought to cling to power after losing to Joe Biden.

Violation of US law

The commission drafted its brief following a court motion seeking access to documents from right-wing lawyer John Eastman, US media reported.

This Donald Trump ally is the one who penned a now-famous memo outlining how he says Vice President Mike Pence could block lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden's election victory over Donald Trump in what would normally have been a session. Congressional routine on January 6, 2021. Ultimately, Mike Pence had refused to do so.

>> To see: "A year after the assault on the Capitol, resentment persists among Trump supporters"

The commission believes that this act constitutes a violation of a United States law that criminalizes "conspiring to commit an offense against the United States or to defraud the United States or any of its agencies in any way or whatever end."

Donald Trump, then one of Twitter's most powerful users, had for months - and well before the election - instilled the idea in his tens of millions of followers that the election might be rigged.

On January 6, just before the deadly assault on the Capitol, he castigated alleged electoral fraud during a rally in front of the White House and called on the crowd to "fight".

With AFP

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