Two years after the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building, several hundred people have been charged (and some have been convicted) for their involvement in the attack — but former President Donald Trump has yet to face repercussions for his role in the day’s events.
Following his loss in the 2020 presidential election to President Joe Biden, Trump spent weeks wrongly claiming that fraud had led to his defeat. Through social media and televised interviews, he encouraged his supporters to oppose the election outcome, and invited them to take part in the “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House on January 6, 2021, the day the Electoral College was set to be confirmed by Congress.
In a tweet discussing the rally, Trump said that it would be a “wild” time. Then, in an incendiary speech to his loyalists at the rally outside the White House briefly before the attack, Trump repeated lies about the election, wrongly claiming it was “stolen” from him by “radical left Democrats” and “the fake news media.”
He encouraged his supporters to “never give up” and “never concede,” and told them to march to the Capitol, adding that they could “never take back our country with weakness.” He did so with full knowledge that some of his loyalists were armed, according to a former White House aide.
Around 950 individuals who took part in the deadly attack on the Capitol have been charged, according to an analysis from ABC News. But Trump and his closest allies have not been issued any charges so far.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently investigating Trump for his role in the day’s events, as well as his attempts to coordinate a plot to overturn the 2020 election by undermining the Electoral College through the use of fake electors.
Trump is also the subject of an investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, that is looking into his demands that officials “find” him enough votes to overturn the 2020 election results in the state. Trump’s comments were recorded and reported on just days before the January 6 attack.
That investigation, led by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, is reportedly winding down, with the grand jury beginning a formal report of its conclusions last month. Based in part on that final report, Willis will make a decision on whether or not to formally charge Trump with a crime.
For weeks, legal experts have been predicting that the investigations into Trump will result in charges sometime this year. The DOJ is “on a path to charge” Trump, former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara said in December. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who served on the House January 6 committee, also said he’d be surprised if the DOJ didn’t charge Trump.
“There’s just deep culpability from the very beginning in everything that Donald Trump did,” Raskin said late last month.
Most Americans agree that Trump is at fault — at least to some degree — for the violence that took place two years ago. According to an Economist/YouGov poll published this week, 53 percent of Americans believe Trump bears some or a lot of responsibility for the events of January 6, 2021, while only 38 percent say he is only a little responsible or bears no responsibility for what happened.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 130 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy