A broad new investigation into the federal government’s response to the January 6 mob attack on the U.S. Capitol is afoot. Democratic House leaders from seven different committees have sent 16 letters to agencies and officials across the federal government requesting detailed records of communications from Trump administration officials and others from both before and after the Capitol breach.
The committees are requesting all materials relating to the certification process of the Electoral College, discussions of Trump loyalists’ plans leading up to the mob attack, and communications in the wake of the violence.
“Should the documents make their way into public view, communications by those employees could be monumental,” writes Whitney Wild on CNN. “Little is known about the Trump White House’s intentions and expectations for January 6 … or the internal discussions about the aftermath of the insurrection.”
Shortly after reports about the House leaders’ requests started circulating on Thursday, Fox News aired a new interview in which former President Donald Trump sought to vastly minimize the violence that took place on January 6 after loyalist participants in the rally he had spoken at went on to break into the Capitol.
Arguing that there was “zero threat” from his supporters when they descended upon the Capitol building, Trump added, “Look, they went in, they shouldn’t have done it. Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know, they had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out.”
In reality, several individuals were injured and five people died as a result of the mob of Trump loyalists breaking into the building on the day that Congress was convened to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election, which President Joe Biden had won. During the attack, dozens of his supporters engaged in chants calling for the killing of elected officials, including Trump’s then-Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in January, while he was still president, for his role in inciting the mob of his supporters to go to the Capitol after wrongly insisting that the election had been stolen. Although a majority of senators voted for his indictment, he was eventually acquitted in the Senate trial.
Hundreds of participants of the Capitol breach have been charged by the Justice Department, including dozens who are accused of conspiracy to interfere in the certification process.
Pelosi has been trying to create a bipartisan 9/11-style investigation of the Capitol breach within Congress, but thus far her effort has not come to fruition.
Earlier this week, Pelosi suggested that Republican leaders, including Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) had been receptive to the idea of a commission. But that changed after he made an appearance on the Senate floor decrying the idea.
“When I asked him if he was serious about wanting to do this he said, ‘Yes, it depends on the scope,’ and I said, ‘Well let’s discuss that,'” Pelosi said at a press conference on Thursday. “The next morning he went to the floor and just dumped all over — forgive my crudeness — the fact that we would be investigating January 6.”
In this context, the record requests sent by seven House committees on Thursday signal House Democrats’ interest in pushing forward with a more sweeping investigation, whether or not their Republican colleagues will agree to a bipartisan inquiry.
Most Americans believe that Trump bears much of the responsibility for what happened on January 6. An Economist/YouGov poll from early February noted that, when asked whether Trump bore “some” or “a lot” of responsibility for the attack of the Capitol, 51 percent of respondents answered in the affirmative, while just 40 percent said he only had “a little” or no responsibility for the events of that day.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.