Former President Donald Trump on Thursday claimed that the "sole goal" of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot is to prevent him from running for office again.
Trump claimed in a statement released by his political action committee, Save America, that "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.
"Their lies and Marxist tactics against political opponents will not stop the truth, or the biggest political movement, Make America Great Again/America First, in the history of our Country. And now we have a war waging in Ukraine that would have never happened, record-setting inflation, an embarrassingly poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan, and an economy that is teetering, at best. All because of a corrupt Election result."
The former president also repeated his claims about fraud in the 2020 presidential election at length for the bulk of the statement.
Trump's statement came the day after the Jan. 6 panel argued that Trump and his allies carried out a "criminal conspiracy" to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's victory in the election.
In a statement, Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Vice Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said, "The facts we've gathered strongly suggest" that emails from attorney John Eastman, who advised Trump toward the end of his term, "may show that he helped Donald Trump advance a corrupt scheme to obstruct the counting of electoral college ballots and a conspiracy to impede the transfer of power."
The panel's attorneys also said in a court filing on Wednesday that evidence illustrates a "good-faith basis for concluding that Mr. Trump and others may have engaged in criminal and/or fraudulent acts, and that Plaintiff's legal assistance was used in furtherance of those activities."
Eastman's attorney told CBS News, "Like all attorneys, Dr. John Eastman has a responsibility to protect client confidences, even at great personal risk and expense. The Select Committee has responded to Dr. Eastman's efforts to discharge this responsibility by accusing him of criminal activity.
"Because this is a civil matter, Dr. Eastman will not have the benefit of the constitutional protections normally afforded to those accused by their government of criminal conduct. Nonetheless, we look forward to responding in due course."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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