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Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, called on Monday for the creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
FILE: US President Donald Trump makes a statement in the White House meeting room on May 22, 2020 in Washington, DC. Image: AFP
WASHINGTON – A majority of Republicans in the U.S. Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump in impeachment last week, but the former president’s troubles are far from over.
Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker of the House of Representatives, called on Monday for the creation of a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Here’s a look at the possible impacts of such an investigation and other potential Trump legal issues:
‘COMMISSION TYPE 9/11’
Pelosi said she would take steps to establish an “external and independent 9/11-type commission” to investigate the assault on the US Capitol that left five dead.
The Commission would “investigate and report on the facts and causes related to the internal terrorist attack on January 6, 2021 against the United States Capitol Complex,” it said in a statement.
It would also look at “interference with the peaceful transfer of power” and the preparedness and response of the Capitol Police and law enforcement branches.
A comprehensive investigation was launched following the Al-Qaeda attacks on September 11, 2001, which killed some 3,000 people in the United States.
BIPARTISAN PUSH
Several Republicans have also said they want an independent investigation into the assault on the Capitol by Trump loyalists seeking to stop the final certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory.
“We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened to make sure it never happens again,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of Trump’s fiercest advocates, told Fox News on Sunday.
Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy told ABC News that there should be a “full investigation” and that Trump “should be held accountable.”
Trump was acquitted in a Senate vote of 57-43 that fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to be found guilty of inciting the Jan.6 assault on Capitol Hill.
Cassidy was one of seven Republicans who joined Democrats who voted to convict Trump.
TRUMP SHARES
Senator Mitch McConnell, the powerful Republican minority leader in the Senate, voted to acquit the former president on constitutional grounds, but blamed him squarely for the Capitol riots and hinted that he could still face criminal charges.
“There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day,” McConnell told the chamber after the vote.
“President Trump remains responsible for everything he did while in office,” McConnell added. “He hasn’t gotten away with it yet.”
Democrats say Trump, who organized a rally to urge his supporters to “fight like hell,” was to blame for inciting the crowd that pushed through Congress.
Trump’s defense attorneys drew attention to the fact that he said at one point that protesters should demonstrate “in a peaceful and patriotic manner.”
Forty-five percent of 1,056 Americans polled in a poll released by Quinnipiac University on Monday said they believe Trump is responsible and should face criminal charges.
Forty-three percent said Trump is not responsible for inciting the violence, while six percent said they believe he is responsible, but should not face criminal charges.
Legal experts have said that a conviction against Trump for his role in the insurrection is unlikely, given that his remarks would be subject to the First Amendment’s free speech protections.
OTHER LEGAL PROBLEMS
A 9/11-style investigation is just one item in a growing list of legal headaches facing Trump now that he is a private citizen without presidential legal protections.
The 74-year-old former president is already the target of at least one criminal investigation, led by Manhattan prosecutor Cyrus Vance, who has been fighting for months to get eight years off his tax returns.
Initially focused on payments before the 2016 presidential election to two women who claim to have had affairs with Trump, the state-level investigation now also examines possible allegations of tax evasion, as well as bank and insurance fraud.
Last week, a prosecutor in Georgia revealed that she was investigating Trump’s efforts to subvert the state’s results in the November 3 election by pressuring local officials to alter the vote count.
In addition, he is defending himself against civil lawsuits, including those of two women who alleged that he sexually assaulted them and are suing him for defamation.
Trump has denied wrongdoing in all of these cases.
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