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Pete Aguilar, member of the Capitol Storming Committee:
"A Proud Boy informant told the FBI that the Proud Boys would have killed Mike Pence if they had the chance."
The committee of inquiry of the US Congress into the storming of the Capitol met again in Washington on January 6, 2021. This time the focus was on how massively Trump put his Vice President Mike Pence under pressure.
Roland Nelles, DER SPIEGEL, Washington, DC:
“I find it very interesting what the committee here found out about the storming of the Capitol on January 6th.
So there are a lot of new details that we learn here.
You learn exactly how Donald Trump tried to pressure Mike Pence, his Vice President, into not recognizing the election of Joe Biden at that famous January 6th Senate and House of Representatives session.”
At this session, the two chambers of Congress should only formally recognize the election of Joe Biden as the new US President.
As is well known, things turned out differently at first.
Donald Trump, January 6, 2021:
“We will never give up.
You don't give up when there's been a theft."
Trump supporters stormed the Capitol.
Mike Pence holed himself up in the building.
As vice president, he was constitutionally supposed to preside over the certification ceremony in Congress.
But Trump had instructed him to reject votes from some states.
Gregory Jacob, Mike Pence's advisor at the time:
"It was the vice president's instinct that there was no way that an individual - let alone the vice president, who himself depends on the election result - could have the authority to oppose voters or the election result to change decisively.«-
Pence defied his president's demands, drawing hatred from Trump supporters.
They looked for him in the Capitol and threatened to hang him.
Pete Aguilar, member of the Capitol Storm Inquiry Committee:
“About forty feet.
That's all.
Twelve yards between the Vice President and the mob.”
Roland Nelles, DER SPIEGEL:
"Fortunately one has to say - fortunately for US democracy - this attempt at a coup d'etat failed.
It also failed because there were many upstanding Democrats and Republicans who tried to prevent the whole thing from happening.
There were people who said to Trump: It doesn't work that way, you can't do it.
There was Mike Pence, Donald Trump's vice president, who refused to go along with the whole thing.
And I think these people have really shown courage here and have done American democracy a great service here.”
Many of the men and women who stormed the Capitol have now been charged with trespassing and other crimes.
Some have already been sentenced to prison.
Roland Nelles, DER SPIEGEL:
»But of course the big question hovers over everything: What will actually become of Donald Trump?
Is he going to be charged for this whole thing or not?
Will he be charged for his role in January 6th or not?
And of course that's a very difficult decision, because you can imagine what would happen then.
Of course, the Trump supporters would then scream: This is political justice, this is a political process that Trump is supposed to be tried here!
You would be outraged.
One might even have to reckon with the possibility of riots by pro-Trump people.
On the other hand, of course, the investigative committee and the US judiciary cannot pretend that Trump has done nothing at all. So anyone who still believes that Trump is completely innocent here has only himself to blame.
This means that if there are actually clear indications of crimes committed by the ex-president, then an investigation must be carried out.
And then, in my opinion, if the US judicial authorities come to this decision, there must also be an indictment.
You can't duck away, you can't somehow delegate the decision, you actually have to accuse Trump.
There's no big excuse.