US House panel recommends criminal charges against Trump

The House committee investigating the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, voted to recommend the Justice Department bring criminal charges against ex-president Donal Trump. The panel on Monday unanimously urged the Justice Department to pursue Trump for inciting an insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiring to defraud the US government and making false statements. "The committee has developed significant evidence that president Trump intended to disrupt the peaceful transition of power under our Constitution," Representative Jamie Raskin said as he outlined the panel's findings. “I think that what Donald Trump did when he occupied the Oval Office was the most dangerous set of political assaults on American political institutions in the history of the White House," he said.  The committee report documented how Trump repeatedly tried to overturn the 2020 election, pressured state officials, assembled a mob and sent it to the Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.

Trump has said he did nothing wrong in challenging 2020 election results and argued the committee's investigation is a partisan sham. As per reports the recommendation is nonbinding, but if the department agreed, it would be the first time a former president faced federal charges. The Justice Department has charged more than 800 people in the Capitol attack.