Jan. 6 committee releases final report

WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol released its long-awaited, full report on Thursday night.

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The committee’s eight-chapter, 845-page report described the “multi-part plan” by then-President Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election results, The Associated Press reported.

>> Read the full report

“The work of the select committee underscores that our democratic institutions are only as strong as the commitment of those who are entrusted with their care,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a forward to the report.

The committee, comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans, was investigating the factors that led to the violence at the Capitol and the panel’s recommendations for preventing similar incidents in the future.

On Monday the committee voted unanimously to approve its final report after an 18-month investigation that included interviews with more than 1,000 witnesses.

“The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,” the report stated. “None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Chapter 3 of the report, titled “Fake Electors and the “President of the Senate Strategy,” noted that Trump’s exhortation to a crowd gathered at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, to march on the Capitol was “no off-the-cuff remark.”

“It was the culmination of a carefully planned scheme many weeks in the making,” the report stated. “This plea by the President turned the truth on its head.”

On Wednesday and Thursday, the committee released testimony transcripts of more than 40 witnesses, The New York Times reported. The transcripts showed nearly two dozen witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, according to the newspaper.

The committee was formed in July 2021 to determine what prompted the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The group held several public hearings and accused Trump of playing a key role in encouraging the outrage that fueled the attack. On Monday, the committee recommended the Justice Department pursue criminal investigations of Trump on four charges related to the violence.

The panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and held 10 hearings. The committee also obtained millions of pages of documents during its investigation.

Witnesses detailed Trump’s actions in the weeks before the violence at the Capitol and how his pressure tactics to overturn his loss to Joe Biden influenced the crowd that broke into the building on Jan. 6, 2021.

The release of the full report came three days after the committee voted on Monday to formally accuse Trump of inciting insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstruction of an act of Congress and one other federal crime, the Times reported. The committee referred Trump to the Justice Department for potential prosecution.

The committee had already released the report’s executive summary, a 154-page narrative of Trump’s plan to remain in power, according to the newspaper. The summary also identified co-conspirators who aided Trump.

Trump has attempted to discredit the report, calling members of the committee “thugs and scoundrels,” according to the AP.

Trump, responding to Monday’s criminal referrals, wrote in a social media post that committee members “don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.”

The committee’s final report contained an error on its cover sheet, The Washington Post reported. The date of the report, prominently displayed on its cover, is “December 00, 2022.” The committee initially said that the report would be released on Wednesday, according to the newspaper.

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