The House January 6th Select Committee may have basically wrapped up its case against former President Donald Trump in a vividly presented two-and-a-half-hour session on Thursday evening. While the committee will likely be back in September with even more evidence that Trump planned and implemented the bloody Capitol insurrection, it appears likely that it has now presented the bulk of its evidence.
Donald Trump’s Capitol Insurrection
What made its case so persuasive was the impressive array of very convincing witnesses who testified against Trump. The overwhelming majority were lifelong Republicans who had been loyal members of the Trump Administration, sometimes down to its last few weeks.
Q2 2022 hedge fund letters, conferences and more
Nearly all testified completely voluntarily, after finally realizing that their president was bound and determined to block a peaceful and orderly transfer of power to Joe Biden, who had been duly elected president in 2020.
The target audience for these hearings was neither the diehard MAGA Republicans nor the Progressive or even middle-of-the-road Democrats. Rather, it was the tens of millions of persuadable voters of the political center.
The January 6th Select Committee does not have the power to prosecute Trump or any of his followers, but it has not only helped set the political stage for the 2022 midterm Congressional elections and perhaps the presidential election of 2024 as well. It has also provided the U.S. Department of Justice with a vast trove of evidence that will enable the prosecution of Trump for fomenting the January 6th insurrection.
What will ultimately bring Trump down is not just his betrayal of his oath of office to “preserve protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” It will also be his betrayal of all the loyal members of his administration who had believed that their president actually would make America great again.
