| The Jan. 6 committee, which is looking into how the attack on the Capitol happened, just made a big announcement about Donald Trump: Members think there's evidence that he and key allies committed crimes while trying to overturn the election. "The Select Committee … has a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States," it wrote. This is not an indictment — Congress doesn't have that power — and it doesn't even mean the Justice Department — which does have that power — will prosecute Trump. But it does mean that the committee is gathering what it says is a fair amount of evidence that President Trump committed crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack and attempts to overturn his election loss — actions that, at the very least, will go down in the history books. "This may be the closest Trump comes to being charged criminally for his post-election efforts," my colleague Philip Bump explains. (No ex-president has ever been charged with a crime.) Here's what you need to know about the allegations. What is Trump accused of?  The committee says it has evidence Trump knew his "Stop the Steal" claims were false but pushed them anyway. (Cassidy Araiza for The Washington Post) | Lawyers for the committee said in a court filing Wednesday night that they suspect Trump committed two primary crimes: obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Obstruction of an official proceeding: The allegation that Trump tried to "obstruct, influence or impede" the counting of electoral college ballots — and did so "corruptly or by threats of force." Naming this crime suggests the committee thinks it has evidence tying Trump directly to the push to stop Congress's counting of electoral ballots — the official proceeding to confirm Joe Biden as the next president. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the committee, has previously floated this as a potential crime Trump committed. Conspiracy to defraud the United States: The allegation that Trump made false statements about the 2020 election (such as falsely claiming that he won it) and thus attempted to "interfere or obstruct legitimate Government activity" with "deceit, craft or trickery, or at least by means that are dishonest." Naming this crime suggests the committee thinks it has evidence Trump knew what he was saying about voter fraud was false. Both these crimes are punishable by fines or even prison. But, as we said, this is what members of Congress think Trump did, albeit based on evidence. That's not the same thing as prosecutors accusing Trump of doing this in a court of law. How did we get to this point? There's a guy named John Eastman who is central to all this. He is a lawyer who was advising Trump as Trump tried desperately to overturn his election loss, a person who seemed to have the president's ear precisely because he was willing to suggest ways to overturn the election.  John Eastman at left as Rudy Giuliani speaks at the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) | Eastman wrote a memo for Trump right around Jan. 6 that essentially argued that Vice President Mike Pence could just count states' electoral votes how he wanted and hand Trump the election. We now know Pence seriously looked at how to do this. This memo and Pence's consideration of it came to light in the book "Peril," by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa. Naturally, the committee wants to talk to Eastman. But he pleaded the Fifth when he was interviewed by the panel. He did give the committee some 8,000 pages of documents but is holding back on 11,000 more, reports The Post. So the committee went to court to say that attorney-client privilege doesn't apply if the attorney was helping the client try to commit a crime. And then they named the above alleged crimes. The Jan. 6 committee chooses its battles very carefully. The fact that members want so much information from Eastman suggests he's central to pinning down any information on crimes Trump or his allies may have committed. What else has the Jan. 6 committee been working on? The committee has interviewed more than 550 people, and it is still trying to talk to some central people from Trump's world to better understand what happened that day. Such as: Ivanka Trump: As of last week, the former president's daughter was in talks with the committee over whether she will testify voluntarily (or be forced to). The committee says it has evidence that she was "in direct contact" with her father on Jan. 6, so talking to her could help illuminate more details about the day. Kimberly Guilfoyle: On Friday, the committee said it will compel Guilfoyle, Donald Trump Jr.'s fiancee, to testify. Guilfoyle spoke at the rally before the Capitol was breached and was backstage with the Trump family during the rally. (In January, the committee obtained phone records from Guilfoyle and Eric Trump.) Pro-Trump attorneys: The committee has subpoenaed several Republican attorneys who were involved in seeking to delay or stop the certification of Biden's victory, including conservative firebrand Cleta Mitchell, who was subpoenaed Tuesday. Trump's response to all this was predictable. He issued a statement Wednesday saying: "The Unselect Committee's sole goal is to try to prevent President Trump, who is leading by large margins in every poll, from running again for president, if I so choose. By so doing they are destroying democracy as we know it." | 
Email 
