Letters to the Editor: What are we waiting for? Charge Trump with attempting a coup

To the editor: The House Jan. 6 committee should make its findings and conclusions clear and unambiguous when it finally submits its report, and it should refer this matter to the Justice Department for prosecution. (“The Jan. 6 committee should call Trump’s crime a crime,” Opinion, April 19)

Encouraging a band of thugs to disrupt a constitutional process in Congress hits at the very foundations of this great country. This was an attempted coup d’etat. In many countries it would not take longer than two months, let alone one year or more, to arrest, convict and imprison the unsuccessful coup plotters, including the leader.

The legislative branch, being completely inept and corrupt, twice failed to convict former President Trump of serious impeachment charges in his four short years in the White House.

The judicial branch should not fail the country. A decision to convene a federal grand jury to examine the evidence and ensure that justice is done should not depend on public opinion that shows that convicting a former president would be divisive.

Charles Blankson, Fontana

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To the editor: Here we go again — or as columnist Harry Litman calls it, we might see the “Mueller effect.”

Eighty-one million Americans voted for President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and our priority was to hold Trump accountable. There is a mountain of evidence already acquired by the Jan. 6 committee, and it was validated by a federal judge.

Yet the committee can’t decide whether to turn over its findings to Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland for cowardly political reasons. If the members are too timid to make a referral to the Justice Department and Garland decides not to prosecute, we have met the enemy, and it is us.

Alan Segal, San Diego