The House select committee tasked with investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final report late Thursday, drawing from hundreds of witness interviews and a vast trove of documentary evidence to make the case that former President Donald Trump was the primary cause of the deadly insurrection and the failed attempt to overthrow the government.
“In the committee’s hearings, we presented evidence of what ultimately became a multi-part plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” reads the panel’s report, which spans nearly 850 pages. “That evidence has led to an overriding and straightforward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
As part of its recommendations for congressional action, the committee’s report echoes growing calls for lawmakers to consider barring Trump from ever holding public office again, noting that “those who took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution and then, on January 6th, engaged in insurrection can appropriately be disqualified” under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.
The report caps off an 18-month investigation that Trump and his top associates — who spent months lying about the 2020 election and peddling false claims of fraud — attempted to impede at every step. The January 6 panel released documents Thursday detailing former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony that Trump’s allies pressured her not to cooperate with the committee.
But despite the obstruction, the committee used its subpoena power to obtain copious witness interviews, statements, and documents — including a draft executive order that would have instructed the Pentagon to seize state voting machines — to build its argument that Trump was ultimately responsible for the events of January 6, a case it laid out in detail over the course of 10 public hearings.
“Without any evidentiary basis and contrary to state and federal law, Donald Trump unlawfully pressured state officials and legislators to change the results of the election in their states,” the committee’s report states. “Donald Trump oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives. Donald Trump pressured members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors from several states. Donald Trump purposely verified false information filed in federal court.”
And “based on false allegations that the election was stolen, Donald Trump summoned tens of thousands of supporters to Washington for January 6th,” the report continues. “Although these supporters were angry and some were armed, Donald Trump instructed them to march to the Capitol on January 6th to ‘take back’ their country. Each of these actions by Donald Trump was taken in support of a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election.”
The panel released its final report as well as supplementary witness interview transcripts days after it recommended that the U.S. Justice Department pursue criminal charges against Trump for inciting insurrection, obstructing Congress, and engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the United States. The DOJ is currently conducting a criminal investigation into the twice-impeached former president, who is running for the White House again in 2024.
House Republicans, many of whom backed Trump’s coup attempt, are expected to shut down the January 6 committee once they take control of the chamber next month.
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