Trump's 'Treasonous' 1/6 Crimes Proved Beyond Reasonable Doubt: Kirschner

The public hearing held on Thursday by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots provided "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" of Donald Trump's "treasonous crimes" in attempting to retain the presidency, legal analyst Glenn Kirschner said.

Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor, attended the hearing and later posted a video on his YouTube page breaking down the presentation, choosing to quote and paraphrase the words of committee members in laying out what he described as "devastating" evidence of Trump's guilt. He pointed to the opening statement from Republican Representative Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chair, in which she stated that the central cause of the events on January 6 was "one man, Donald Trump."

Cheney spoke about Trump's alleged multi-faceted approach to combat the 2020 election results, including a "premeditated plan" to declare election fraud before election day, seeking people who help him "invent and spread lies about the widespread fraud," sending angry and armed protestors to the Capitol on January 6 and then refusing to call on the mob to end the violence for hours.

Kirschner also noted that Republican Representative Adam Kinzinger spoke about legal challenges Trump's lawyers initiated against the election results, and Democratic Representative Adam Schiff provided a breakdown of evidence that Trump allegedly knew there would be violence on January 6.

The House committee's hearing on Thursday was its first since July, following a series of public presentations over the summer that the panel used to break down evidence and testimony regarding the role of Trump and his allies in allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election results. At the end of the hearing, the committee voted to subpoena Trump for documents and testimony related to the January 6 attack, saying Trump "is required to answer for his actions."

"We have left no doubt—none—that Donald Trump led an effort to upend American democracy that directly resulted in the violence of January 6," Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee's chair, said. "He is the one person at the center of the story of what happened on January 6. So we want to hear from him."

Kirschner was not the only legal expert who came away from Thursday's hearing convinced of Trump's guilt.

Laurence Tribe, professor emeritus of constitutional law at Harvard University, tweeted Thursday: "If you're not watching the hearing live, you should be. The evidence set forth leaves NO REASONABLE DOUBT that Trump personally led the plot to overturn the government, by violence if necessary. AG Garland no longer has any alternative but to indict him."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department have been under pressure to indict Trump over his alleged January 6 role. In his video, Kirschner acknowledged that it could seem like attempts to hold Trump accountable may never happen, but stressed that he believed "justice will come" for the former president.

"It will. Justice matters," he said.

Newsweek reached out to a lawyer for Trump for comment.