WASHINGTON, DC – Following the unanimous vote of Members of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack to affirm their final report, Constitutional Accountability Center President Elizabeth Wydra issued the following reaction:

After nearly two years of meticulous information collection and nine public hearings, the bipartisan Select Committee took one more important step toward holding accountable those responsible for the violent attack on the United States Capitol and American democracy.

The evidence that the Committee gathered leaves little doubt that Donald Trump and a string of cohorts engaged in a criminal conspiracy to thwart the will of American voters and overturn the results of the 2020 election, an election Trump and his advisors knew he had lost.  This evidence informed the criminal referrals voted upon today with respect to: obstructing an official government proceeding (congressional certification of the election); conspiracy to defraud the United States government; conspiracy to make a false statement; and engaging, assisting, or aiding in insurrection.  The violent attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power is unprecedented in American history, and it cannot go unpunished.  If we are to remain a nation of laws, then those laws must be applied fairly to all, even to a former president.  No one is above the law.

And of course, the forthcoming report from the Select Committee will do more than make criminal referrals.  It is important that individuals who committed crimes be held accountable, but it is equally important that we do everything possible to ensure that any such future attack on our democracy will fail.  Whatever recommendations the Select Committee final report makes to Congress and the Executive Branch, they must be considered seriously and with dispatch.  Our republic and its people deserve nothing less.

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Resources:

Elizabeth B. Wydra, Constitutional Accountability for January 6th, Inside Sources, Sept. 15, 2022:  https://insidesources.com/constitutional-accountability-for-january-6th/

Praveen Fernandes, Examining our Past to Secure our Future: What Reconstruction can teach us about January 6th and Constitutional Accountability, ACSblog, Jan. 5, 2022: https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/examining-our-past-to-secure-our-future-what-reconstruction-can-teach-us-about-january-6th-and-constitutional-accountability/

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Constitutional Accountability Center is a nonpartisan think tank and public interest law firm dedicated to fulfilling the progressive promise of the Constitution’s text, history, and values. Visit CAC’s website at www.theusconstitution.org.

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