WASHINGTON — After what one called a “heartbreaking” verdict, House prosecutors who argued for Donald Trump’s conviction of inciting the U.S. Capitol riot said Sunday they had proved their case and railed against the Senate’s Republican leader and most of his colleagues for “trying to have it both ways” in acquitting the former president.
A day after Trump won his second Senate impeachment trial in two years, bipartisan support appeared to be growing for an independent Sept. 11-style commission to make sure that such a horrific assault could never happen again.
The end of the quick trial hardly put to rest the debate about Trump’s culpability for the Jan. 6 insurrection as the political, legal and emotional fallout unfolded.
More investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré to lead an immediate review of the Capitol’s security process.
Lawmakers from both parties signaled on Sunday that even more inquiries were likely.
“There should be a complete investigation about what happened,” said Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump. “What was known, who knew it and when they knew, all that, because that builds the basis so this never happens again.”
Cassidy said he was “attempting to hold President Trump accountable,” and added that as Americans hear all the facts, “more folks will move to where I was.” He was censured by his state’s party after the vote, which was 57-43 to convict but 10 votes short of the two-thirds required.
A close Trump ally, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said he looked forward to campaigning with Trump in the 2022 election, when Republicans hope to regain the congressional majority. But Graham acknowledged that Trump had some culpability for the siege at the Capitol that killed five people, including a police officer, and disrupted lawmakers’ certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s White House victory.
“His behavior after the election was over the top,” Graham said. “We need a 9/11 commission to find out what happened and make sure it never happens again.”
The Senate acquitted Trump of a charge of “incitement of insurrection” after House prosecutors laid out a case that he was an “inciter in chief” who unleashed a mob by stoking a monthslong campaign of spreading debunked conspiracy theories and false violent rhetoric that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
Trump’s lawyers countered that Trump’s words were not intended to incite the violence and that impeachment was nothing but a “witch hunt” designed to prevent him from serving in office again. The conviction tally was the most bipartisan in American history but left Trump to declare victory and signal a political revival.
The Republicans who joined Cassidy in voting to convict were Sens. Richard Burr of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“It’s frustrating, but the founders knew what they were doing and so we live with the system that we have,” Delegate Stacey Plaskett, a House prosecutor who represents the Virgin Islands, said of the verdict, describing it as “heartbreaking.” She added: “But, listen, we didn’t need more witnesses. We needed more senators with spines.”
