WASHINGTON - The House commission, which has been investigating the assault on Congress for a year and a half, unanimously voted in favor of criminal referral of the former president to the Justice Department for at least four crimes.

A possible formal indictment of the former US president could seriously endanger his candidacy in the 2024 elections just a few weeks after the official launch of his new campaign for the White House. The decision was made by the special committee of the House of Representatives in Washington, charged with investigating the facts related to the assault on the Congress building by Trump supporters on January 6, 2021 to try to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the vote the previous November.

However, the recommendation expressed unanimously by the members of the commission does not lead to automatic indictment, which will totally depend on the outcome of another investigation that is being conducted by a special prosecutor appointed by the Minister of Justice of the democratic administration. The conclusions of the special commission of inquiry of the House represent in themselves a historic event. It is in fact the first time ever in the history of the United States that a former president is formally accused, even if by a legislative body, of having committed a crime, above all of a subversive nature.

The charges raised against Trump appear very serious and include: inciting and supporting the insurrection, obstruction of a federal proceeding, i.e. certification of Biden’s victory by Congress, conspiracy to defraud the government and to give false testimony . Even more than the non-binding referral to the Justice Department, the thousands of pages of testimony and elements against Trump collected by the commission during the investigation could weigh. While the picture that has emerged points to the involvement of several other personalities active in the former president’s circle to manipulate the results of the November 2020 elections, the conclusions of the same commission tend to highlight the decisive role played by Trump alone.

The attempt to pass the “bad apple” thesis into a generally healthy system is due to several factors. First, the politicians who serve on the commission, largely from the Democratic Party, are well aware of the explosive implications for the whole system of a possible wide-ranging investigation, as well as possible indictments, which bring in the Trumpian conspiracy of sectors of the military, security forces and US intelligence. Secondly, it is the opinion shared by Democratic leaders, including President Biden, that the Republican Party, increasingly under the influence of Trump, must be spared a serious and thorough investigation to bring to light the complicity with the coup plans of the former president.

On the other hand, the stability of politics and of American society itself depends on the bipartisan collaboration of the two main American parties on the most important issues for the power apparatus overseas, both on the domestic and international fronts. It is therefore not surprising that many dark aspects of the events of January 2021 have been overlooked or otherwise not investigated sufficiently. One of these is the inertia highlighted by the FBI and other American police agencies in the immediate eve of the assault on “Capitol Hill”, despite the fact that much information had been gathered relating to the plans of the rioters. The FBI also had numerous informants within far-right paramilitary organizations, such as the “Proud Boys” and the “Oath Keepers”, who allegedly led operations on January 6 after witnessing a fiery Trump rally in front of the White House.

Very little interest on the part of the House commission was also shown for the gap of more than three hours that followed the desperate request made to the Pentagon by deputies and policemen under siege on the Capitol to call in men of the National Guard, theoretically ready to intervene in few minutes. In those decisive moments, furious discussions probably took place between the White House and the military leaders, perhaps to establish what support among the latter Trump’s plans to remain at the helm of the country could have found.