Chronicle Editor
Donald Trump’s acquittal in a Senate impeachment trial on a charge of “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the United States Capitol violence does not spell an end to possible accountability — or legal troubles — for the former president.
Trump’s actions and words leading up to the deadly January 6 violence, in which rioters stormed the seat of the US legislature as Congress met to certify the election victory of President Joe Biden, garnered more bipartisan support for conviction than any previous Senate impeachment trial.
Legislators from both parties have since increasingly called for Congress to set up an independent commission, like that created after the 9/11 attacks.
Notably, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, long considered one of Trump’s closest allies, suggested such a commission is needed “to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again”.
“His behaviour after the election was over the top,” Graham, who voted to acquit Trump, told Fox News on Sunday.
An independent commission, which would need to be created through legislation, could determine “what was known, who knew it and when they knew, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again”, while removing the tinge of partisan politics, Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump and has since been censured by the party in Louisiana, told ABC News.-Al Jazeera
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