Storming the Capitol: what are the consequences for Donald Trump, who faces criminal prosecution?

The ball is now in the court of US Attorney General Merrick Garland. On Monday, an extensive parliamentary inquiry concluded that Donald Trump, the former US president from January 2017 to January 2021, was directly responsible for the January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol, the seat of the US Parliament. Merrick Garland is in custody. pressure to bring the former head of state to criminal liability.

But other scenarios are left to the discretion of the “Attorney General,” the Attorney General, another name for the Minister of Justice, who is at the forefront of this highly political affair and is likely shuffling the cards of the presidential election. 2024. Neither Merrick Garland nor his agency is required to follow the recommendations of the commission of elected officials who voted unanimously to prosecute Trump after an 18-month investigation.

Merrick Garland, well aware that no former American president has been charged with a crime in the history of the United States, will certainly want to make sure he has a good reason before risking himself. The 70-year-old lawyer is known for his reluctance to get involved in political affairs and knows that by indicting Donald Trump, he will permanently tarnish the image of neutrality he cultivates.

Call to rebellion: the heaviest accusation, but the most difficult to prove

This is partly why he appointed on November 18 a special prosecutor who was supposed to be independent, Jack Smith. He is responsible, in part, for examining the role of the ex-president on this chaotic day of January 6, 2021, when American democracy has been shaken.

Attorney Smith has resumed work already well begun by dozens of federal prosecutors and cops from the FBI, the American federal police, who have collected a lot of evidence of the Republican leader’s maneuvers to challenge the 2020 presidential election and the actions of his supporters that led to the January 6 riots. He will be able to assess whether the former business magnate should be prosecuted. According to the first hypothesis, he could support accusations different from those recommended by the parliamentarians. But it will be up to Merrick Garland to ultimately approve any prosecutions.

Elected officials have recommended four charges against Donald Trump: incitement to insurrection, conspiracy against the state, obstruction of official procedure (validating a presidential election), and making false statements. A call to insurrection is the most serious charge that the 76-year-old ex-president, a self-proclaimed candidate in the 2024 election, can be charged with. But it is also, according to experts, the most serious charge. prove. The US authorities avoided using this accusation in their prosecution of the Capitol rioters.

Very experienced referee

Merrick Garland, a law graduate of the prestigious Harvard University, will have to work hard to convince as many Americans as possible that his actions are governed by the law and nothing less than the law. At the same time, Donald Trump on Monday vehemently condemned the “false” accusations, which he said were aimed at derailing him upon his return to the White House, the residence of the American president.

The “Attorney General” has already experienced in his career as a prosecutor and magistrate the brunt of cases of national importance, such as the case involving Timothy McVeigh, the author of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in 1995. He also coordinated the prosecution against Ted Kaczynski, an environmental activist nicknamed “The Unabomber”, whose attacks traumatized America.

Later, in 2016, then-Court of Appeals Court of the Federal Capital Merrick Garland suddenly emerged from anonymity when Barack Obama, president from January 2009 to January 2017, chose him to sit on the Supreme Court. But in an already very tense political situation, he was not confirmed in the Senate, and the then-elected Republicans in the majority even refused to meet with him.