The January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol building left five people dead, caused extensive property damage, sent lawmakers scrambling to safety, and had led to more than 100 arrests. More than 6,000 US National Guard soldiers have also been deployed to the Washington, DC, area to ensure order through the January 20 inauguration.
Articles of impeachment charging US President Donald Trump with high crimes and misdemeanors have been drafted by Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI), Ted Lieu (D-CA) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and are expected to be introduced in the US House of Representatives on Monday.
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) raised the call of impeachment while the chaos was still unfolding at the Capitol on Wednesday. Since then, numerous other Democratic lawmakers have sounded off in support of the move.
However, a top US federal prosecutor told reporters on Friday that the Department of Justice would not be charging Trump with incitement to violence for the riotous storming and ransacking of the US Capitol by his supporters following a speech in which he encouraged them to “stop the steal.”
The draft impeachment document notes that while Congress was convened to certify the Electoral College's votes for US president, Trump “addressed a crowd of his political supporters nearby. There, he reiterated false claims that ‘we won this election, and we won it by a landslide.' He also willfully made statements that encouraged – and…