The disturbances were part of a “multipart conspiracy to disrupt the handover of power,” according to the head investigator for the House January 6 committee.
Former U.S. attorney Timothy Heaphy said that he thinks the Department of Justice should also bring charges against numerous of former president Donald Trump’s associates, including his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, and his attorney Rudy Giuliani.
Meadows never testified in front of the committee, and Giuliani offered very little information while consistently invoking the Fifth Amendment.
The House select committee spent months looking into Trump’s and his supporters’ role in riot-instigation and summoned on a number of people close to him to testify.
Heaphy said that the DOJ would eventually determine who to prosecute based on what further information they are able to get – beyond what was submitted to the House committee – even if some chose to keep quiet when summoned before the panel.
Heaphy kept mute during the panel’s 18-month probe, but in his first interview with the New York Times since the end of the congressional hearings on January 6, he has now spoken out.
As congress prepared to certify the results of the 2020 election, supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
In the riot, five individuals died.
After bogus accusations by Trump and his backers that the election had been rigged against him for months, there were rioting.
Heaphy explained to the Times how, in his opinion, the nation came dangerously close to losing democracy itself that day.
I didn’t always understand how fragile democracy is, he said. We may have had a different result if not for the bravery of a small group of individuals who chose principle over politics, going against their own self-interest.
“We may have been able to undermine the will of the people. We cannot take something for granted because it is terrifying.
Around a thousand persons were questioned by the Committee, and more than one million papers were examined. Heaphy said that the study rapidly resembled a criminal investigation.
“It begins to sound illegal when we witness purposeful activity, precise actions that seem to be intended to disrupt the joint session of Congress,” said one observer. Intent is the special counsel’s main focus.
“It began to seem more and more like probable criminal activity,” one official said, “the more evidence we saw of the president’s desire, and those working with him, to take actions to prevent the transition of power from occurring.”
Heaphy thinks the DOJ may still prosecute certain members of the inner circle of the former president Trump once the inquiry is finally complete.
A cast of characters is present. You may consider Mark Meadows and [Rudolph] Giuliani, in my opinion. If there was a conspiracy or agreement, I believe the Justice Department ought to investigate it thoroughly.
There is a ton of evidence that we were unable to get. Mr. Meadows did not visit us and speak with us. We did speak with Mr. Giuliani, but he often cited the attorney-client privilege. Every time, John Eastman asserted the Fifth Amendment.
Heaphy stated that the DOJ might bring charges against Jeffrey Clark and attorney John Eastman as well.
In his capacity as counsel to then-president Donald Trump, Eastman made the widely reported suggestion that vice president Mike Pence may reject the results of certain states’ elections.
Witnesses said that Clark, a senior DOJ employee in the Trump administration, was one of the few attorneys in the DOJ who was prepared to take action in response to Trump’s illegitimate allegations of election fraud and pleas for assistance in reversing the results.
An claim of the attorney-client privilege or the executive privilege is allegedly overruled by or given priority over a criminal grand jury inquiry. I hope the grand jury is able to get the answers we were unable to, Heaphy told The Times.
I’m not sure how vast the conspiracy is. But, it could extend beyond even those individuals that we highlighted.
Heaphy described how the panel, by including 14 former federal prosecutors who were called in due to the scope of the task, broke new ground in comprehending what led to the Capitol siege.
It was unexpected to see early signs of the multifaceted plot to block the transfer of power taking form and coming together. The violence in the Capitol was well known around the globe.
Heaphy acknowledged the severity of the job at hand as he added, “But how we got there, and how planned and purposeful it was — this ratcheting up of pressure that finally results in the president inciting a crowd to interrupt the joint session — that was unique.”
Heaphy also mentioned how difficult it was to interview witnesses because they were concerned that their cooperation would come off as a “turncoat” after speaking.
There were times when we would interview a witness and, within 30 minutes, the NY Times writer Luke Broadwater would announce on television that the select committee had examined the witness, Heaphy said.
And it makes it really challenging because there have been instances when individuals have said, “My client would want to assist the committee, but she’s frightened that if she does, then she’ll instantly be outed as a turncoat.”
One complaint leveled at the committee was the fact that Vice President Mike Pence was never served with a subpoena and the committee didn’t summon President Trump until almost the conclusion of the sessions. Heaphy, though, explains the delay as only a phase of the investigation’s learning process.
Before you interview the most important witnesses in any investigation, you should gather as much information as you can. You go up the ladder, just as you would in a criminal investigation. You converse with folks who are more and more important. You lay a foundation by beginning at the bottom.
Several of the people who were asked to testify before the committee did not do so because they used their Fifth Amendment right not to do so.
It was more challenging for us to win people’s trust and confidence because of our public character and the scrutiny we worked under, according to Heaphy.
“I’m really happy that all of our transcripts have been made available.” If anybody believes that we have lied, masked, or withheld information, the evidence is clear. As the lead investigator, I wanted to ensure that we could support each and every claim made by a member or witness.
»January 6 incidents indicate a power transition disruption plot«
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