Donald Trump will be ordered to give evidence into deadly US Capitol riots after 6 January committee vote
The congressional panel investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol has voted to subpoena Donald Trump.
It was a unanimous vote and the former president will now be compelled to give evidence to the committee about the events of 6 January 2021 which saw five people killed and hundreds, including many law enforcement officers, injured.
The committee said he is “required to answer for his actions”.
It has been arguing in its hearings so far that Mr Trump was directly involved in the bid to overturn the 2020 US election result after inciting his supporters on the day to storm the Capitol building – the seat of US power in Washington DC.
He denies the accusations, and on Truth Social described the committee as “a total bust”.
Police were forced to use tear gas during the riots, which stunned America – and the world
The panel cannot bring legal charges against Mr Trump, but it can decide to make a criminal referral to the Justice Department, should members choose.
Its series of hearings, which began in June this year, has been trying to establish his exact involvement.
On Thursday, it was told Mr Trump orchestrated a multi-part plan to nullify the election result, and had behaved in a way that was a “staggering betrayal of his oath”.
The vote came as extraordinary new footage emerged of both Republican and Democrat lawmakers huddled in a secure location in the Capitol building as the riot unfolded around them.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is seen in the video telling the group: “There has to be some way we can maintain the sense that there is some security, some confidence, that government can function… and that you can elect the President of the United States.
“We have to get to finish the proceedings.”
She is then left stunned when an aide replies: “Apparently everybody on the floor is putting on their tear gas masks to prepare for a breach.”
Storming the Capitol: How four hours of mayhem unfolded in Washington
On the morning of 6 January, thousands of his supporters – inspired by an incendiary speech he had just given near the White House in which he repeated claims he had been denied a second term due to voter fraud – marched to the Capitol.
It was in session at the time, overseeing the congressional certification of Joe Biden‘s presidential election win.
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Picture: Associated Press
A large group, including armed members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and QAnon, breached barriers at pedestrian entrances to the building’s grounds. Several also entered the Capitol building itself after a mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
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The hearing has been told former president Trump refused to call off the mob
Debunked
Having lost the electoral vote on 3 November 2020 to his Democratic opponent, Mr Trump began to insist the contest had been “rigged,” triggering his opponents to claim a conspiracy against him.
His accusations of voting malpractice have been continually debunked by election authorities.
The former president, a Republican, has so far refused to appear before the committee, which is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans.
He may reject the subpoena, although he is legally bound to respond positively to it.
Steve Bannon, his former aide, was also subpoenaed to the panel but failed to turn up and has since been convicted of contempt of congress for doing so. He will be sentenced later this month and could be jailed for up to two years.
Steve Bannon (R) with Trump and his son-in-law Jared Kushner at the White House
Hundreds of witnesses have been interviewed by the panel and more than 50 subpoenaed.
More than 900 people were charged with offences relating to the 6 January insurrection.
Mr Trump has vowed to pardon them if he wins a second term as President, though he has yet to officially announce he is standing for re-election.
Earlier on Thursday, the US Supreme Court rejected Mr Trump’s plea to step into the legal fight over the FBI search of his Florida estate.
He had asked the justices to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbiter to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the 8 August search of Mar-a-Lago, but his request was denied.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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