Jan. 6 panel claims Trump engaged in ‘criminal conspiracy’

Former President Donald Trump criminally conspired to “defraud the United States,” the select committee investigating the riot at Capitol last January alleged in a Wednesday night court filing.

The House panel presented evidence that Trump and his cohorts deliberately spread proven lies about his election and provoked a violent mob of supporters to disrupt the certification of his 2020 election loss, the document said.

The Republican broke multiple laws “by interfering with the election certification process, disseminating false information about election fraud, and pressuring” officials to overturn the election, as it detailed his strategy to spread “dangerous misinformation,” the committee said.

The findings were filed in federal court Wednesday evening as investigators asked a judge to force Trump advisor John Eastman to reveal email messages connected to the alleged criminal conspiracy.

Eastman was the “architect” of the disinformation campaign, and Trump invoked his advice as he egged on supporters to stop the democratic process on the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, the 61 page document claimed.

His claims of attorney-client privilege did not apply to his refusal to cooperate in the investigation because he was advising Trump, not representing him, the panel alleged.

The Republican ignored multiple assurances about the validity of the results by members of his own administration as 60 legal challenges were shot down in seven states, the report said.

The ex-president and his advisor continued to promote the falsehoods and disparaged Mike Pence for upholding the law that afternoon, even as they knew an armed mob had breached the Capitol at his behest, some of them calling for the vice president to be executed.

“Thanks to your bulls–t, we are now under siege,” Pence counsel Greg Jacob emailed Eastman, the document said.

“The ‘siege’ is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so the American people can see for themselves what happened,” Eastman allegedly replied.

As Pence and lawmakers ran for their lives, the Trump-endorsed riot resulted in “multiple deaths, physical harm to more than 140 law enforcement officers, and trauma among government employees, press, and Members of Congress,” the bipartisan panel appointed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote.

“The facts we’ve gathered strongly suggest that Dr. Eastman’s emails may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power,” the committee tweeted Wednesday night.

However, the Jan. 6 panel has been slammed by the GOP as a political witchhunt.

Top-ranking House Republican Kevin McCarthy in January called the investigation an illegitimate political operation, as he turned down an invitation to speak with the select committee.

“This committee is not conducting a legitimate investigation as Speaker Pelosi took the unprecedented action of rejecting the Republican members I named to serve on the committee. It is not serving any legislative purpose,” he said.

With Post Wires