WASHINGTON – Claiming that the primary cause of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was “a man,” the House committee investigating the attack released its final report on Thursday, submitting details how President Donald J. Trump has implemented what it calls a “multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election” and makes recommendations on steps to ensure no Something similar could happen again.
The release of the full report is the culmination of an 18-month investigation by the panel and comes three days after the committee voted on Monday to formally accusing Mr. Trump of inciting uprisings, conspiring to defraud the United States, obstructing an act of Congress, and another federal crime when it brought him to the Justice Department for prosecution. While the referrals did not force federal prosecutors to take any action, they did send a strong signal that Congress believes the former president committed a crime.
“The work of the chosen committee underscores that our democratic institutions are strong only through the commitment of those entrusted with their care,” Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in the foreword to the paper. fox.
The Commission has released the report of executive summary, a legitimate 154-page account of Mr. Trump’s relentless drive to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election by seven million votes. The summary identified accomplices who supported Mr. Trump, but it said evidence points to a frank conclusion: “The primary cause of January 6 was a man, former President Donald Trump. .”
The commission on Wednesday and Thursday also released more than 40 witness testimonies, including nearly two dozen witnesses. invoke their Fifth Amendment right to self-incrimination. Many of them, as well as the attachments, will be released before the end of the year.
Understanding events on January 6
The report is largely an expanded version of the panel’s set of widely watched hearings this summer, with chapter themes reflecting the themes of those sessions. Those include Mr. Trump’s viral lies about the election, the creation of Fake Trump voter list in states won by President Biden and former presidents pressure campaign against state officials, the Justice Department and former Vice President Mike Pence. The committee’s report documents how Mr. Trump summoned a mob of his supporters to Washington and then did nothing to stop them as they stormed the Capitol for more than three hours.
The report also contains the committee’s legislative recommendations, designed to prevent future presidents from carrying out a similar plot. Council confirmed review of the Election Vote Counting Act, the law that Trump and his allies tried to exploit on January 6 in an attempt to cling to power. The house is expected to give final approval for that overhaul on Friday.
Among the committee’s recommendations include the possibility of reconsidering the Insurrection Act and strengthening enforcement of the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurgents holding office. The panel also said Congress should consider passing legislation to strengthen the power to subpoena and increase penalties for those who threaten election officials.
The committee’s report is the culmination of an 18-month investigation, which included more than 1,000 witness interviews and a review of more than a million pages of documents, obtained after a panel issued more than 100 subpoenas to the court. court.
The nine-member panel includes seven Democrats and two Republicans.
Both Representative Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and committee chair, and Representative Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican and vice chair, wrote the preface to the report.
“Our country has gone too far to allow a defeated president to turn himself into a successful tyrant by overthrowing our democratic institutions, inciting violence and, as I have seen, opens the door to those in our country whose hatred and bigotry threaten equality and justice for all Americans,” Thompson wrote.
Likewise, Ms. Cheney focused her remarks on a long-stated goal: ensuring that Mr. Trump never comes close to the reins of power again.
Ms. Cheney wrote of Mr. Trump’s actions on January 6: “No man behaved like that at the time could have served in any position of power in our nation once. again. He is not fit for any position.”
