Wednesday, December 21, 2022

A Case of Hope Over Experience: The J6 Referral Falls Short of a Credible Criminal Case

This week the January 6th Committee voted to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department including the proposed indictment of former President Donald Trump.

  • However, the Committee's splashy finale lacked any substantial new evidence to make a compelling criminal case against former President Trump.
  • The Committee repackaged largely the same evidence that it has previously put forward over the past year.
  • Failure of the Committee to offer any new and direct evidence of criminal conduct was obvious at the outset.

Crimes require satisfaction of underlying elements

  • Much of the evidence cited what an official failed to do.
  • The last hearing seemed to focus on a number of things that did not occur, from a draft tweet that was not sent to an executive order that was never signed.

The most damning evidence concerns what Trump failed to do in those 187 minutes

  • While repeatedly omitted by the Committee, Trump told his supporters to go to the Capitol "peacefully" to support Republicans challenging the election.
  • Around 2:10 p.m., people surged up the Capitol steps, and Trump concluded his speech. At 4:17 p..m., Trump made his statement to stop - roughly an hour and a half later.

https://jonathanturley.org/2022/12/20/a-case-of-hope-over-experience-the-j6-criminal-referral-falls-short-of-a-credible-criminal-case-against-trump/ 

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