Month: October 2022

During Thursday’s public hearing, the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot unanimously voted to subpoena former President Donald Trump about his actions surrounding the insurrection. The committee has been tasked with probing the facts and causes of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for safety. Trump has repeatedly and falsely claimed that his victory was stolen through widespread voter fraud, and never officially conceded the election to Biden.

Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said before the vote that “It is our obligation to seek Donald Trump’s testimony,” and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. said it is a “key task” of the committee to compel the testimony of “January 6th’s central player.” Cheney noted that out of roughly 30 witnesses who have invoked the 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination during their testimony,  many did so directly in response to questions about their dealings with Trump. Those witnesses include former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, former national security advisor Michael Flynn, and Republican political operative Roger Stone.

Just before the hearing adjourned, the nine-member panel voted unanimously to direct Thompson to issue the subpoena for Trump. The bipartisan panel has so far issued more than 100 subpoenas and interviewed more than 1,000 people over the course of its investigation, and most of those witnesses have complied with the committee’s requests. However, it is expected that Trump may be unlikely to willingly cooperate with the panel, which he has repeatedly decried as a politically motivated witch hunt.

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On Thursday, a Florida jury recommended life in prison without parole for 24-year-old Nikolas Cruz, the shooter who pleaded guilty to carrying out the murders of 14 students and three staff members on Valentine’s Day 2018 at Marjory Stone Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.  While jurors found Cruz was guilty of aggravating factors that warranted a possible death sentence, they said that they did not outweigh the mitigating factors. A unanimous decision would have been required to issue a death sentence under Florida law.

Lead prosecutor Mike Satz said in his closing statements that “the appropriate sentence” for Cruz would have been the death penalty.  Judge Elizabeth Scherer will make a final ruling on the life sentence for Cruz following a hearing on Nov. 1, at which point relatives of victims and those he wounded during the shooting will have the opportunity to speak.

The defense abruptly rested their case Sept. 14, at which time Judge Scherer lambasted them for “the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case.” Prosecutors for weeks told the jurors how Cruz came to the school armed with a rifle and killed 17 people, calling him “cold, calculative, manipulative and deadly.”

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