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Donald Trump took to his social media platform after the January 6 House select committee urged the Justice Department bring criminal charges against him, to instead call attention to alleged crimes committed by the current president.
In a continuation from previous posts that made light of the committee’s decision to make the referrals to the federal government Monday, the ex- commander-in-chief criticized the American justice system for its failure to address the ‘massive number of crimes committed by both Joe and Hunter Biden.’
The decision came shortly after the airing of damning, never-before-seen testimony from former Trump aide Hope Hicks, and serves as the first time a US president has been the subject of a criminal referral by Congress.
Trump, who has already announced a renewed bid for the White House in 2024, hit back at the committee Monday night, suggesting on TruthSocial that the move was politically motivated and indicative of a ‘two-tiered “Justice” system – with the word ‘Justice’ put in quotes.
Trump would then offer an impassioned declaration, stylized in all caps, attesting to his innocence, simply writing: ‘I DID NOTHING WRONG.’
Trump, who has already announced a renewed bid for the White House in 2024, hit back at the committee Monday night, suggesting their decision to urge the Justice Department to bring charges against him politically motivated and indicative of a ‘two-tiered “Justice” system
‘These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger,’ Trump wrote Monday evening in the first in a series of posts labeled in capital letters: ‘STATEMENT ON JAN 6 COMMITTEE REFERRAL.’
The online onslaught saw the politician go on to paint a picture of a full-fledged federal conspiracy – with the government’s mission ultimately being to halt him from reassuming the presidency.
‘The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was – a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party,’ Trump wrote.
Coming in quick succession, the third and seemingly last post in the Republican’s tirade looked to be an attempt divert attention from his current situation – and instead toward his successor, Biden, and his even more scandal-plagued son.
Former President Donald Trump defiantly slapped down the January 6 House select committee’s decision to make criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. He’s pictured at the Ellipse rally on January 6, which happened directly before the Capitol attack
Chairman Bennie Thompson said Monday’s public meeting would be the select committee’s final one before it dissolves at the end of the year
‘Continued from previous TRUTH,’ the aspiring president wrote, before tearing into lawmakers for not looking to prosecute the father-son pair for crimes he asserted were ‘documented and 100 percent certain.’
‘And I’m the one that the Corrupt and Partisan Unselect Committee goes after,’ Trump griped, before criticizing officials for their ‘two tiered “Justice System.”‘
‘And, by the way,’ Trump went on to add, ‘what ever happened with the massive number of crimes committed by Joe and Hunter Biden? They’re right there, documented and 100 percent certain.
‘Also, where is the prosecutor from Delaware?’ he continued, referring to U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss, a top federal prosecutor in the state of Delaware – where the Bidens are from – who headed the investigation into Hunter Biden and the contents of his misplaced laptop.
‘What happened to him,’ Trump went on. ‘Is he friends with the Ukrainian prosecutor who didn’t prosecute after Biden held up the $BILLION PAYMENT to Ukraine?’
He then pivoted back to his own situation, by simply stating ‘I DID NOTHING WRONG!’
In other developments:
The pronounced response from the aspiring president came after footage of former Trump pollical advisor Hicks, 34, surfaced Monday during the select committee’s final hearing before it dissolves at the end of the year.
In footage aired during the hearing, Hicks said that during the unrest at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, Trump shrugged off concerns from advisers and officials in his circle that his claims of fraud during the 2020 election could damage his reputation.
In a taped testimony played at Monday’s final meeting of the Democrat-led committee, Hicks revealed that Trump ‘refused’ to put out a statement warning against violence in the lead-up to January 6.
In a videotaped segment of her prior testimony, Hicks also discussed warning Trump that he could harm his legacy by pushing his election fraud claims.
‘The only thing that matters is winning,’ the ex-president allegedly responded.
The panel’s recommended charges are obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and ‘inciting,’ ‘aiding’ or ‘assisting’ an insurrection.
The pronounced response from the aspiring president came after footage of former Trump pollical advisor Hope Hicks (pictured on screen), 34, surfaced Monday during the select committee’s final hearing before it dissolves at the end of the year.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, who led a subcommittee on the criminal referrals, pointed out that the final charge – if Trump is found guilty – triggers ‘automatic grounds for disqualification from ever holding public office again, at the federal or state level.’
He also said a criminal referral would be sent for pro-Trump lawyer John Eastman.
‘The President has an affirmative and primary constitutional duty to act to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Nothing could be a greater betrayal of this duty than to assist in insurrection against the constitutional order,’ Raskin said.
Aside from the vote, Hicks’ videotaped testimony and text messages were largely the only new revelations in the nearly two-hour event.
Former Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Michael Fanone (left) and U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Harry Dunn (right) listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds its final meeting
Committee members Reps. Adam Schiff and Jamie Raskin speak with reporters after Monday’s January 6 House select committee meeting
Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger (left) and Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin (right) attend the final meeting of the House select committee on January 6 Monday
One exchange between her and former Trump White House press aide Hogan Gidley indicates they both wanted the ex-president to stop his supporters as they were flooding the Capitol and overwhelming police.
Gidley sent Hicks on January 6 at 2:19pm: ‘Hey. I know you’re seeing this. But he really should tweet something about Being NON-violent.’
Hicks responded, ‘I’m not there.’
‘I suggested it several times Monday and Tuesday and he refused,’ her message continued.
The longtime Trump ally told lawmakers that she did not directly address de-escalation with the former president, but discussed it with White House lawyer Eric Herschmann.
‘I communicated … it was my view that it was important that the president put out some kind of message in advance of the event,’ Hicks said in the video.
‘Mr. Herschmann said that he had made the same recommendation directly to the president. And that he had refused.’
Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren said Hicks’ testimony is just one of a litany of Trump allies and aides who told the then-president point-blank that he needed to call off the violence and stop pushing his election fraud claims.
‘Despite all that, he continued to purposely and maliciously make false claims, sometimes within a day of being told that a particular claim was false and unsupported by the evidence,’ Lofgren said.
Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson is seen leaving the hearing room Monday after the final meeting of the January 6 House select committee
The hearing room was packed for the final public meeting of the January 6 House select committee. The committee is wrapping up its work before Republicans take control of the House of Representatives
Lawmakers made the stunning decision to recommend charges for Trump during the panel’s final public hearing before the select committee is dissolved at the end of this year.
‘The dangerous assault on American constitutional democracy that took place on January 6, 2021, consists of hundreds of individual criminal offenses. Most such crimes are already being prosecuted by the Department of Justice,’ Raskin said.
‘Ours is not a system of justice, where foot soldiers go to jail and the masterminds and ringleaders get a free pass.’
No US president has been the subject of a criminal referral by Congress until now.
Before Monday night’s eruption of posts, Trump remained uncharacteristically quiet for the duration of the hearing.
Afterward, he referenced committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney’s August GOP primary loss to Trump-backed Congresswoman-elect Harriet Hageman – but misspelled the outgoing lawmaker’s name.
‘…But Liz Chaney lost by a record 40 points!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
‘At the heart of our republic is the guarantee of the peaceful transfer of power,’ Cheney at the outset of the hearing. ‘Every president in our history has accepted this orderly transfer of authority except one.’
‘In addition to being unlawful as described in our report, this was an utter moral failure and a clear dereliction of duty,’ she said at another point.
The meeting is a culmination of more than a year’s investigative work and nine public hearings.
The lawmakers accused Trump of knowingly misleading millions of supporters about the 2020 election’s validity
Lawmakers on the panel have heard from dozens of witnesses – mainly Republicans – and obtained thousands of pages’ worth of correspondences and other documents that paint a picture of Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Cheney said, ‘among the most shameful of this committee’s findings is that President Trump sat in the dining room by the Oval Office watching the Capitol riot on television.’
‘If this is a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again,’ Chairman Bennie Thompson said in his opening remarks.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, outlined ‘concerning’ efforts by Trump-allied parties to use political fundraising dollars to offer legal representation or jobs to committee witnesses.
In one instance, Lofgren said a witness told the panel that she ‘was offered potential employment that would make her “financially very comfortable” as the date of her testimony approached by entities that were apparently linked to Donald Trump and his associates.’
The offer never materialized, the Democrat said, but added that the panel has received additional testimony ‘from new witnesses who have come forward to tell us about their conversations with ex-President Trump on this topic.’
The committee elaborated on its reasoning in an executive summary of its forthcoming report, obtained by DailyMail.com.
In the 161-page introductory document, lawmakers detailed five points they believe directly link Trump to criminal culpability over the US Capitol attack.
Of the insurrection charge, they point out that a majority of the US Senate voted to impeach Trump last year for a similar ‘incitement’ accusation and that a federal court ruled his speech on the White House Ellipse that day was ‘plausibly words of incitement not protected by the First Amendment.’
‘Both the purpose and the effect of the President’s actions were to mobilize a large crowd to descend on the Capitol,’ the report states.
‘During the ensuing riot, the President refused to condemn the violence or encourage the crowd to disperse despite repeated pleas from his staff and family that he do so.’
On the obstruction charge, the committee outlines instances of Trump impeding their probe and writes that on January 6 itself, that ‘through action and inaction, President Trump corruptly obstructed, delayed and impeded the vote count.’
The panel also highlights Trump and his legal team’s efforts to challenge the election results in several states, calling them an attempt to ‘prevent or delay the counting of lawful’ Electoral College ballots.
But the ex-president’s pressure on then-Vice President Mike Pence to go along with a faulty legal theory that claimed he had the unilateral right to overturn the election could ‘solely’ argue the obstruction charge by itself, the lawmakers claim.
For that, the committee also believes ‘sufficient evidence exists for a criminal referral of John Eastman.’ The pro-Trump lawyer was the author behind the infamous legal memo that embroiled Pence in the ex-president’s plan.
In another section of the report, the lawmakers directly accuse Trump of witness tampering.
‘The Select Committee is aware of multiple efforts by President Trump to contact Select Committee witnesses,’ the report states.
‘The Department of Justice is aware of at least one of those circumstances.’
The first excerpt from the committee’s bombshell final report also reveals lawmakers’ doubts over the veracity of some witness testimonies.
Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who was interviewed early in the probe, reportedly ‘seemed evasive, as if she was testifying from pre-prepared talking points’ for part of her testimony.
‘In multiple instances, McEnany’s testimony did not seem nearly as forthright as that of her press office staff, who testified about what McEnany said,’ the report states.
It cites her ‘disputing suggestions’ that Trump did not want to condemn the violence unfolding at the US Capitol on January 6, directly contradicting statements made by her former press aide Sarah Matthews.
Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, was ‘not as forthcoming’ in her testimony as other former members of his administration.
‘Indeed, Ivanka Trump’s Chief of Staff Julie Radford had a more specific recollection of Ivanka Trump’s actions and statements,’ the panel states.
For several members – including both Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois – Monday’s meeting was their final public event as House legislators.
Throughout the public phase of their probe, the committee has sought to prove that the former president was well aware that he lost to Joe Biden when he was publicly promoting his election fraud claims – and that members of his team reminded him of that fact multiple times.
Additionally, they accused Trump of using his fraud theories to fundraise from his supporters, therefore knowingly misleading them.
And lawmakers say the Capitol riot was not a spontaneous outbreak of violence but rather, as Vice Chair Cheney said at one early hearing, Trump and his allies’ ‘last stand’ to try and upend a democratically held election.
The Justice Department is already probing the former president’s alleged plan to overturn the 2020 election.
An ongoing federal investigation into Trump and his allies’ efforts to upend Georgia’s electoral count recently heated up with the appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith, a former Hague prosecutor who the ex-president has repeatedly attacked since taking on the new role.
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