Trump accused of participating in "criminal conspiracy" to annul 2020 elections 4:34
(CNN) --
Week after week, it's revealed that former President Donald Trump's attempt to steal the 2020 election runs deeper and broader than initially seemed, deepening the national dilemma of whether and how he could be held to account. .
Even as a federal judge commented Monday that Trump "probably" tried to commit a crime to stay in office last year, the former president's attacks on democracy are intensifying.
They were on display as recently as Saturday night at a bullshit-filled rally that underscored how his conspiracy to nullify the election, whether criminal or not, is still viscerally alive and capable of damaging future elections.
Trump and a right-wing lawyer were part of a "criminal conspiracy" to nullify the 2020 election, according to the January 6 commission
While much of the country has been paralyzed by Russia's brutal war in Ukraine, the House committee investigating the insurgency has been racing against time until its likely demise if Republicans retake the House in November's midterm elections.
On Monday, he took another step toward holding two former Trump aides accountable by filing criminal contempt references.
It is extraordinary that, more than 14 months later, new details continue to emerge of the efforts of Trump and those around him to subvert the victory of President Joe Biden.
It is also ironic that this threat to American democracy is being further exposed as Washington leads an international effort to save freedom in Ukraine, which is under much greater attack from Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump still seems to worship as a hero.
Here at home, a flurry of new details in recent days about the former president's behavior warrants continuing investigations into the worst attack on American democracy in decades.
Those revelations also explain why pro-Trump Republicans were so keen to prevent the House select committee investigating Jan. 6, 2021, from getting off the ground.
And they inject a new political dimension to Trump's comeback bid, as he casts the 2022 midterms as a referendum on the lie that he won in 2020 and seeks to build a White House comeback on the very falsehoods that have lured millions of his supporters
What a judge says about whether Trump tried to obstruct Congress
In a development Monday that alone encapsulated the shocking events of the latest election still looming over the country, a federal judge wrote that it was "more likely than not" that Trump "corruptly attempted to obstruct" Congress in his certification of Biden's electoral victory.
Judge David Carter's comment came as he ruled that emails from John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who helped craft Trump's bogus argument that the 2020 election was stolen, should be turned over to the committee.
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Carter cannot bring a case against Trump.
But his words not only set a blaring historical marker on a president who committed a potential crime in office, putting the entire US democratic system at risk. His comment refocused attention on the debate within of the House committee on making what would be Trump's historic criminal referral to the Justice Department.
Such a move would present Attorney General Merrick Garland with the momentous decision to impeach a former president who is maneuvering a $100 million war chest in a possible bid to win back the job from him in 2024.
There could be few hotter political potatoes for an attorney general already facing political pressure than dealing with Trump aides obstructing the committee.
Not going after Trump in such circumstances would send a signal of impunity for presidents who seek to destroy American democratic institutions, even as Trump supporters who looted the US Capitol begin to be convicted and face prison terms for apparently acting according to the wishes of his political hero.
But moving against Trump would ensure that the dark history of the 2020 election continues to dominate American politics for years to come because it would offer the former president new material for his claims that he is persecuted by the political establishment.
Seizing on that theme Monday, Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich slammed Carter's ruling as "just another example of how the left is arming every branch of government against President Trump."
But the panel hit back.
"The Court's opinion also includes a caveat: that lack of accountability could set the stage for a repeat on Jan. 6," committee chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, and the court said in a statement Monday. Vice President Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming.
"The United States must not allow what happened that day to be minimized and cannot accept as normal these threats to our democracy," they said, clearly trying to emphasize the enduring relevance of the unrest on Capitol Hill as the political clock ticks down.
Supreme Court dragged into the mud
Monday's events rattled Washington as it was still coming to terms with the implications of last week's revelations that Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, had aggressively tried to support Trump's attempts to cling to power in late 2020 and early 2021. There is no indication that her husband was involved in attempts to subvert a legal election.
But the Supreme Court's reputation rests on the assumption of impartiality and on avoiding any appearance of ethical problems.
This issue has now dragged the top caucus right into the aftermath of January 6, an outrage that is affecting every branch of the US government.
And it came as Republican senators spent the past week smearing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Biden's pick for the Supreme Court, with misleading claims that she was soft on child pornography offenders, potentially damaging her reputation with some voters. in the next years.
Ironically, many of those same senators were among Trump's most ardent enablers and apologists when he tore apart the rule of law in the White House.
Multiple sources said Monday that the committee will seek an interview with Ginni Thomas about texts in her possession that show her pleading with then-White House General Secretary Mark Meadows to redouble efforts to block a Biden victory.
"We want to hear from everyone who has something to say," Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who sits on the committee, told CNN on Monday.
"And obviously she frequently interacted with the president's chief of staff and was actively involved in the effort to nullify the election. So speaking as a member, I think it's important that we listen to her."
Eastman's point of view
Carter delivered a new victory for the Jan. 6 committee, which indicated Monday that it is moving forward with its investigation.
In ordering the release of 101 emails held by Eastman since around January 6, 2021, the judge revealed new details about the documents the House panel may receive, including one that appears to be helping Trump and the alleged conspiracy. Eastman to obstruct Congress: A draft memo written for another Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, recommending that Vice President Mike Pence turn away voters in some states during the Jan. 6 congressional meeting.
Eastman was instrumental in crafting the plan for Pence to refuse to certify election results in Congress based on false claims, refuted in court, that there had been massive fraud against Trump.
Eastman "intends to comply with the court order," said his attorney, Charles Burnham.
But the Eastman angle is just one front the committee is moving forward on.
The former president's son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner is expected to speak voluntarily before the committee this week.
And the committee voted Monday night to send to the House floor a criminal contempt referral regarding former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino, both of whom rejected the panel.
Ivanka Trump is in talks for a voluntary interview with the commission on January 6
Assuming the full House supports the referral, it will again be up to Garland to decide whether to move toward prosecutions.
While the Justice Department has opened a case against former Trump political guru Steve Bannon, who is set to go on trial this summer, it has yet to weigh in on a similar contempt case against Meadows, who may have much stronger executive privilege for refuse to testify.
Garland's challenge shows that while the committee can make big symbolic moves, its ability to force testimony may be limited ahead of public hearings scheduled for this spring.
Some Democrats on the committee called on the Justice Department to do more to hold Trump aides who refuse to testify accountable through prosecution.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California warned, "This committee is doing its job. The Justice Department needs to do its job."
Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia called on the department to act quickly and showed real frustration with Garland.
"I will echo what my colleagues have already said, but more directly, Secretary Garland, do your job, so we can do ours."
Such frustrations raise the question of the committee's broader impact.
Millions of Americans who support the former president have already been willing to accept the denials of what happened on January 6, which have been advanced by Trump's Republican acolytes.
But while the committee, which has interviewed hundreds of witnesses and appears to have a raw story to tell, cannot bring Trump to justice, it can sway public opinion with its final report and public hearings.
If he succeeds in capturing the attention of the American people, he will implicitly ask voters if they have the stomach for more years of lies from a former president who clearly lost an election he insists he won.
Katelyn Polantz, Annie Grayer, Whitney Wild, and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
insurrection on capitol