The House Jan. 6 committee has released its final reports on its probe into the Capitol riot.
The committee’s final report affirms that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
The report concludes an astonishing 18-month investigation into the Former President and the violent revolt two years ago.
The 814-page report unveiled on Thursday, December 22, 2022 comes after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained millions of pages of documents.
The witnesses; ranging from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement to some of the rioters themselves, exhaustingly explained Trump’s actions in the weeks ahead of the insurrection and how his widespread pressure campaign to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who viciously pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The report asserts that the central cause was Donald Trump.
The panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans concluded that, the insurrection gravely threatened democracy and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk.”
In a foreword to the report, Outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi noted that the findings should be a “clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defense of our Constitution.”
The report’s eight chapters narrates the story largely as the panel’s hearings did this summer; describing the many aspects of the remarkable plan that Trump and his advisers devised to try and void President Joe Biden’s victory.
The lawmakers described his pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers and Vice President, Mike Pence to game the system or break the law.
In the two months between the election and the insurrection, the report says, “President Trump or his inner circle engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation, targeting either State legislators or State or local election administrators, to overturn State election results.”
The committee disclosed that Trump’s repeated false claims of widespread voter fraud resonated with his supporters and were amplified on social media.
According to the committee, this fueled the distrust of the government he had fostered for his four years in office and he did little to stop them when they resorted to violence and invaded the Capitol.
The massive, damning report comes as Trump is running again for the presidency and also facing multiple federal investigations, including probes of his role in the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at his Florida estate.
This week is particularly fraught for him, as a House committee is expected to release his tax returns after he has fought for years to keep them private.
Also, Trump has been blamed by Republicans for a worse-than-expected showing in the midterm elections, leaving him in his most politically vulnerable state since he won the 2016 election.
“Highly Partisan”
Making comments on his social media site, Trump called the report “highly partisan” and falsely claimed that it did not include his statement on January 6 that his supporters should protest “peacefully and patriotically.”
The committee asserted that Trump followed that comment with election falsehoods and charged language exhorting the crowd to “fight like hell.”
Trump has tried to discredit the report, branding members of the committee as “thugs and scoundrels” as he has continued to falsely dispute his 2020 loss.
“These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.”
Donald Trump
The investigation’s release is a final act for House Democrats who are ceding power to Republicans in less than two weeks, and have spent much of their four years in power investigating Trump.
Democrats impeached Trump twice, the second time a week after the insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Other Democratic-led probes investigated his finances, his businesses, his foreign ties and his family.
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