Trump suggests he can’t be criminally charged over Jan 6 as he’s already been impeached

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Louise Thomas

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Donald Trump has suggested that he should not be prosecuted by the Department of Justice over his role in the January 6 insurrection as he has already been impeached for it.

The one-term president took to his Truth Social platform after the House January 6 committee officially voted to refer him to the Justice Department for prosecution.

The committee decided that charges should be brought from alleged violations of at least five separate sections of the United States criminal code.

Mr Trump became the first president in US history to be impeached twice, even though the two-thirds mark needed to convict him in the US Senate was not reached.

“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Mr Trump wrote on Truth Social on Monday.

The committee unanimously voted to transmit the panel’s findings to Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing investigations into Mr Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.

Mr Smith is also overseeing the probe into Mr Trump’s possession of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me.  It strengthens me,” wrote Mr Trump on Truth Social.

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.  Americans know that I pushed for 20,000 troops to prevent violence on Jan 6, and that I went on television and told everyone to go home.”

And he added that the FBI was targeting him to prevent him from winning the presidential election in 2024, which he has announced he will contest for the GOP.

“The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party.”