The Commission of Inquiry into the Assault on the Capitol is suing former President Trump

The congressional commission investigating the assault on the Capitol will sue Donald Trump. All nine committee members voted today to sue the former US president. It will probably happen in a few days.

“He is the person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6,” the chairman of the Democratic Committee said in a comment on the decision. “So we want to listen to him. He must be held accountable.”

The Commission of Inquiry is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Today’s hearing, which is expected to be the last before next month’s mid-term elections, showed new footage from the day of the assault on the Capitol.

It shows, among other things, how the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, tried by telephone to have more security. Schumer said to the then Attorney General: “Why don’t you just ask the President to tell them to get out of the Capitol?”

Incidentally, the question is how likely a subpoena against Trump is. For example, CNN writes that “at this late stage” the former president is unlikely to respond. The subpoena should lead to a lengthy legal battle.

Trump’s rejection could eventually lead to allegations of contempt for Congress, as was the case with his former adviser Steve Bannon, the US news agency said. happened. He carries a prison sentence of up to twelve months.

Trump calls the quote on his own social media platform Truth Social “a joke.” “Why did they wait until the last minute?” he writes. According to him, the committee only managed to further divide the United States.

The parliamentary committee is investigating, among other things, the extent to which Trump can be held responsible for the assault on the Capitol. The former president has not yet appeared before the commission and has tried several times to prevent former employees from testifying.

The former president has invoked, among other things, the so-called executive privilegethe freedom granted to presidents to consult with councilors without fear of ever having to testify about that confidential decision-making process.

Five people were killed and dozens injured in the assault on the Capitol in January last year. Many Democrats and even the two Republicans on the investigative committee hold Trump responsible for the attack. He allegedly incited his supporters to storm the United States Parliament building.

Earlier this year, correspondents Marieke de Vries and Lucas Waagmeester made this retrospective on the assault on the Capitol: