The US committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot has recommended charges against former president Donald Trump.
At its final public hearing, the panel voted unanimously to refer the former president to the Department of Justice on four criminal counts.
They are obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and insurrection.
The department is conducting its own investigation into January 6 and is not compelled to act on the committee's recommendations.
The committee made its case against Mr Trump over nine public hearings.
A preview of the final report of the select committee revealed some of the findings against Mr Trump, including:
- Purposely disseminating false allegations of fraud related to the 2020 presidential election
- Corruptly pressuring vice-president Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes
- Attempting to enlist justice department officials to make purposely false statements and thereby aid his effort to overturn the presidential election
- Unlawfully pressuring state officials and legislators to change the results of the election in their states
- Plotting to overturn the election outcome
The full report is expected to be released on Thursday, Australia time.
During the last public session of the committee, representative Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat, recounted Mr Trump's relentless pressure campaign aimed at getting vice-president Mike Pence to reject the counting of electoral votes and deny Democrat nominee Joe Biden his lawful victory.
That legally dubious theory was pushed by John Eastman, a conservative law professor and Trump loyalist whose plan was derided by other lawyers in Mr Trump's orbit.
Each member of the nine-member panel recollected the various aspects of the 16-month investigation, including Mr Trump's effort to pressure his own justice department officials and Mr Pence into helping overturn his election defeat.
When those efforts failed, the committee said, Mr Trump turned to his supporters, summoning them to march to the Capitol.
"President Trump lit the flame, he poured gasoline on the fire and sat by in the White House dining room for hours watching the fire. And today still continues to fan those flames," Representative Elaine Luria said.
The committee also referred four Republican House members, including Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, to the chamber's ethics committee for failing to comply with its legal subpoenas as it investigated the attack.
"If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again," Representative Bennie Thompson, the select committee's chairperson, said as the meeting began.
Slamming Mr Trump for summoning the mob to the Capitol nearly two years ago, Mr Thompson also criticised the former president for undermining faith in the democratic system.
"If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith," Mr Thompson said.
Mr Trump has already launched a campaign to seek the Republican nomination to run for the White House again in 2024.
Work of several investigations
The select committee's work is one of a series of investigations into the riot.
Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the incident and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.
"Among the most shameful of this committee's findings was that President Trump sat in the dining room off the Oval Office, watching the violent riot at the Capitol on television," Representative Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee and its vice-chairperson, said.
A jury has already found members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia guilty of sedition for their role in the attack.
Special Counsel Jack Smith was appointed last month to lead federal probes into Mr Trump.
Mr Trump has faced a series of legal problems since leaving office.
His real estate company was convicted on December 6 of carrying out a 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities.
Mr Trump has dismissed the many investigations he faces as politically motivated. He says the January 6 committee, dominated by Democrats, is biased against him.
"The highly partisan Unselect Committee is illegally leaking confidential info to anyone that will listen," the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform before the meeting.
"How much longer are Republicans, and American patriots in general, going to allow this to happen."
The select committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans approved the report, including the recommendation of charges, unanimously.
The House Ways and Means Committee is due to meet on Tuesday (local time) to decide what to do with Mr Trump's tax returns, which it obtained late last month after a long court fight.
Mr Trump was the first presidential candidate in decades to not release his tax returns during either of his campaigns for president.
ABC/wires
