[Soup] As a result of the investigation that the 'body' Trump should be prosecuted, what's next?

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The last announcement of the Special Investigation Committee (hereafter referred to as the Special Committee) held at the US House of Representatives on the 19th was special in many ways.

The biggest reason is that the case and person under investigation are special.

There are many American media that wrote that it was 'historic' beyond special.

The U.S. House of Representatives has a two-year term, and the Capitol Hill Special Task Force on Terrorism was established on July 1, 2021, so the nine members spent most of their term investigating what happened on January 6, 2021. That's count.

It is often the case that Congress invokes its investigative powers to hold hearings and find out the facts, but this special task force has an unprecedented task.

As the investigation aimed at a former president who did not recognize the results of the election he lost and declared that he would run again in the 2024 presidential election, public attention was focused more than any other congressional investigation committee.

On the 19th, the Special Assistance Committee recommended that the Ministry of Justice should criminally prosecute former President Trump after a long journey of 1 year and 6 months.

The congressional investigative committee announcement video has been viewed in the millions.

Today, let's take a look at the highlights of the last announcement.

Several broadcasters, including C-Span, a US National Assembly broadcaster, relayed the entire announcement live and uploaded several summaries, but the video uploaded by the special condolence committee's YouTube channel on January 6 alone received 120,000 views. over.

You can guess the world's interest in the Special Assistance Committee.

Among the nine members, there are seven Democrats, including Chairman Benny Thompson (Mississippi), and two Republicans, including Vice Chairman Liz Cheney (Wyoming).

Chairman Benny Thompson said in an all-out remarks that the January 6 attacks were a tragedy that shook American democracy and the rule of law.

He went on to stress that the most important thing to prevent such a tragedy from happening again is for those responsible to take responsibility and to be punished if necessary.

Ahead of the midterm elections, former President Trump demoted the Republican Party, explaining that only those who enthusiastically support Trump remained in the party.

Who are the two Republicans who bravely participated as special counsel targeting Trump?

Rep. Liz Cheney, who is also the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and Adam Kinzinger (Illinois) both distanced themselves from Trump early on.

After the January 6th terrorist attacks, the House immediately impeached President Trump for the second time in office, and at this time, there are two names among the 10 Republicans who supported the impeachment.

In particular, Rep. Liz Cheney was ousted from the chair of the House of Representatives, the third-ranked member of the Republican Party, at the cost of losing to Trump, and ahead of this midterm election, she was completely defeated by Trump-backed candidate Harriet Heyman in the party primary, ending her term in Congress. When finished, you become a savage.

Following Chairman Thompson's opening remarks, Senator Cheney, who took the microphone, likewise defined the January 6th Capitol terrorism as a grave threat to the United States, and mentioned his great-great grandfather.

When President Lincoln called up the Union Army in April 1861, my great-great-grandfather enlisted without delay.

And he fought bravely for four years in the Civil War.

American citizens fought to defend democratic institutions, to defend a government formed by free will.

Anyone who works in the United States Congress is reminded on their daily commute to the painting in the central Rotunda Hall of the Capitol building of the importance of freely formed government and the peaceful transfer of power that ensures it.

The terror attack on the Capitol on January 6th was a huge shock to us, who took for granted the precious democracy that our ancestors shed their blood for.

So, throughout my work on this Special Investigation Committee, I thought of the sacrifices of many people, including my great-great-grandfather, who fought for freedom and democracy in our country.

Kinzinger announced early last year that he would not run in the midterm elections after his district was merged with that of fellow Republicans after redistricting.

Cheney and Congressman Kinzinger did not have to worry about preserving their seats, so they were able to finish their work on the special committee without succumbing to all kinds of threats and criticism from Trump supporters.

House recommends that President Trump be prosecuted

The House made four out of nine members of the Special Advisory Committee from former lawyers.

The final presentation, which lasted an hour and a half, was filled with data and testimony key to proving Trump's criminal charges.

There were many other impressive remarks, but it is difficult to introduce them all, so I will move on to the most important conclusion.

The Special Assistance Committee did its best for 1 year and 6 months to uncover the full picture of the capitol terrorism.

However, Congress does not have the power to bring criminals or suspects to court.

This is what the Ministry of Justice and the prosecution can do.

Instead, the Special Assistance Committee recommended criminal prosecution, and detailed the grounds for it.

The recommendation for criminal prosecution means that Congress has told the Department of Justice that “our own investigations indicate that the following persons have committed the following crimes:

The Ministry of Justice should also conduct the necessary investigation and prosecute them if their crimes are revealed.”

1. Article 18, Section 1512(c): No person shall obstruct, mislead, or interfere with any official business process conducted by the United States Government.

Former President Trump and his lawyer John Eastman, as well as key players in planning the Capitol attack, violated this provision because they sought to disrupt a key process in the US system that ensured the peaceful transfer of power based on the election results.

2. Article 18, paragraph 371: No one shall conspire to defraud the United States.

Fraud is any act that obstructs, delays, or obstructs the functioning of the US government in accordance with the law.

3. Article 18, Section 1001: No one shall knowingly deceive the Federal Government or knowingly lie for any other purpose.

Trump and Eastman and other key forces insisted on fraudulent elections, while at the same time trying to falsify the election results by creating votes that were not actually cast by American voters, intimidating the electoral college, or not recognizing the intentions of the electoral college.

4. Article 18, Section 2383: No one shall plot, incite, or participate in a civil war to overthrow the United States.

Rebellion is a serious crime directly prohibited by the U.S. Constitution, and those found guilty of rebellion are ineligible to hold elections in the federal or state governments.

Article 18 of the United States Code (USC) is the penal code and the law of criminal procedure, and according to Congressman Raskin, all four charges can be prosecuted as violations of the Article 18 Criminal Code.

Senator Raskin referred to the principle of fairness before citing four specific charges on which he would base his recommendation on criminal prosecution.

The terror attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a serious threat to the US Constitution and institutions.

The U.S. Department of Justice has already investigated the alleged crimes of numerous individuals involved in the process and has prosecuted and brought most of the suspects to trial.

This is not just a one-off riot.

Clearly, there are forces that have instigated the attack and devised a plan from the beginning to overturn the results of the election, ignoring the will of American citizens through the election.

If the foot soldiers who followed the instructions go to jail, but the generals and leaders who ordered the attack go unpunished, is this really the right thing to do?

At least our judicial system makes it clear that this is not the case.

Most of the rioters who broke into the Capitol were infantrymen who were simply involved, and there was a general who was responsible.

From the beginning, Trump called supporters to Washington, DC, claimed election fraud, gave a speech inciting violence, watched the Capitol building in a mess from the Oval Office for hours on TV, and tweeted as if it was no big deal. The president is the body.

Now the ball has passed to the Ministry of Justice.

Finally, special prosecutor Jack Smith, appointed by the Justice Department last month, is investigating the relationship between the January 6 Capitol terrorism and former President Trump.

Although the Ministry of Justice is not obliged to adopt the report or accept the recommendation of the Congressional Special Assistance Committee, it is not easy to ignore the report, which contains such detailed evidence and logic that Trump was the body that abetted and instigated the Capitol terrorism.

▶New York Times Column: How will history remember the January 6 Capitol terrorism?

Will conspiracy theories be exported?

The last announcement of the Special Investigation Committee on Terrorism at the Capitol Building on January 6 was a topic that attracted a lot of attention in the United States, but the reason why this column was particularly eye-catching was because of the introduction of the article.

Because Trump and Trumpism, which sought to overturn election results by violating the very foundations of democracy, resemble the Nazis of the 1930s that Polgreen described in his column.

Of course, neither Polgreen nor Rachel Maddow's podcast Ultra, which Polgreen strongly recommends, compares Trump or Trump supporters directly to the Nazis.

But the fact that members of far-right groups arrested in large numbers for plotting a coup in Germany earlier this month share quite a bit with Trump-backed far-right conspiracy theorists is certainly worrisome.

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