March 3 (UPI) — The congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol for the first time has indicated that former President Donald Trump was part of a criminal conspiracy to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack said in a court filing on Wednesday that it has evidence to suggest that Trump and some of his associates may have broken the law in their efforts after Biden was declared president-elect in late 2020 and early 2021.
In the court document, the committee said that Trump interfered with the 2020 election certification process, disseminated false information about election fraud and “pressured state officials to alter state election results and federal officials to assist in that effort.”
The panel also said Trump may have violated the law when his former attorney, John Eastman, tried to block investigators from obtaining emails related to the investigation. Eastman claimed attorney-client privilege in his decision not to turn over materials to the committee.
“The select committee’s brief refutes on numerous grounds the privilege claims Dr. Eastman has made to try to keep hidden records critical to our investigation,” committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said in a joint statement.
“Dr. Eastman’s privilege claims raise the question of whether the crime-fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege applies in this situation. We believe the evidence in our possession justifies the review of these documents.”
“The select committee also has a good-faith basis for concluding that the president and members of his campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States,” the panel said of its 221-page filing, which was filed in federal court in California.
A U.S. Capitol police officer shoots pepper spray at a pro-Trump rioter who broke in through a window at the complex in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI
Thompson and Cheney said that the evidence “strongly suggests” that Eastman’s emails show that he helped Trump advance an effort to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and engaged in a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power to Biden’s administration.
“We look forward to the court’s review of our filing as the select committee’s investigation moves forward,” Thompson and Cheney added.
Charles Burnham, an attorney representing Eastman, told ABC News that his client had a responsibility to protect Trump.
“The select committee has responded to Dr. Eastman’s efforts to discharge this responsibility by accusing him of criminal conduct,” Burnham said. “Because this is a civil matter, Dr. Eastman will not have the benefit of the constitutional protections normally afforded to those accused by their government of criminal conduct.
“Nonetheless, we look forward to responding in due course.”
Trump and members of his administration took numerous actions to overturn the election results after it became clear that Biden beat him by 74 electoral votes — 306 to 232 — and 7 million ballots in the national popular vote. Dozens of lawsuits were struck down in federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court denied efforts to counter the election results.
The House committee is investigating the Jan. 6 attack that followed Trump’s “Save America” rally near the White House, during which Trump and others strongly urged followers to go to the Capitol where Congress was certifying Biden’s victory. Trump told them to “fight like hell” and his attorney Rudy Giuliani urged them to undertake “trial by combat.”
In its filing, the committee also revealed details of interviews with former aides to Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence. On several occasions, Trump attempted to get Pence to reject the electoral votes, although the vice president has no constitutional authority to do so.
“The evidence supports an inference that President Trump and members of his campaign knew he had not won enough legitimate state electoral votes to be declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election during the January 6 joint session of Congress, but the president nevertheless sought to use the vice president to manipulate the results in his favor,” the filing states.
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