The FBI and Department of Justice should investigate President Trump for seditious conspiracy over his attempts to hinder Congress’s final counting of the 2020 electoral college votes as part of a scheme to overthrow the government of the United States by preventing the transition of power, according to a criminal complaint filed by CREW.

“In what will be remembered as a dark day for American democracy, President Trump and his co-conspirators appear to have engaged in nothing less than an attempt to overthrow the government by force”

While President Trump and his associates likely committed a multitude of federal criminal offenses prior to and during the insurrectionary events of January 6, 2021, the president’s larger purpose appears to have been the violent overthrow of the United States government by delaying, hindering, or stopping Congress from affirming the results of the 2020 presidential election.

“Accusing the president of sedition is not something we do lightly,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “It is an accusation that should be reserved for only the most extreme circumstances. This is such a circumstance.”

By conspiring with his associates to raise a mob in front of the White House, and then directing that mob to go to the Capitol and use “strength” to “take back our country” in order to hinder or delay Congress’s certification of the electoral vote and overturn the 2020 election, President Trump attempted to incite the violent overthrow of the government of the United States. His actions on January 6, 2021, capped weeks of calls and planning with associates for his followers to “fight” to stop Congress from counting the electoral college votes.

“In what will be remembered as a dark day for American democracy, President Trump and his co-conspirators appear to have engaged in nothing less than an attempt to overthrow the government by force,” Bookbinder said. “This cannot go unanswered. The FBI and Justice Department must investigate immediately.”

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