The US congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol is set to release its final report, summing up its months-long probe into the deadly riot.
In advance of making the final document public, the panel released a summary of the report after recommending criminal charges against Donald Trump. The report expected to be published on Wednesday, but the committee delayed its release amid a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Washington, DC.
Trump has been the main focus of the committee, which outlined in 10 public sessions this year his role in the Capitol attack.
The summary of the report mainly scrutinised the former president’s conduct around January 6, from his false claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 vote to his effort to overturn the election and refusing to act to stop the riot on the day of the attack.
“That evidence has led to an overriding and straight-forward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed. None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him,” the summary read.
Trump is expected to be the principal figure in the final report.
The panel’s chair, Congressman Bennie Thompson, said on Monday that the committee will also release its “non-sensitive records” before the end of the year.
“These transcripts and documents will allow the American people to see for themselves the amount of evidence we’ve gathered and continue to explore … that has led us to our conclusions,” he said.
While continuing to reiterate his baseless claim that the 2020 election was “stolen”, the ex-president has denied any wrongdoing related to January 6, often rebuking the congressional panel and dismissing its work as a political witch-hunt.
Here are the 17 allegations that the committee highlighted in the executive summary of its final report:
- Starting on election night in November 2020, Trump “purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud … to aid his effort to overturn the election and for purposes of soliciting contributions” which led to the January 6 violence.
- Trump refused to accept the election results despite losing dozens of lawsuits and his own advisers refuting fraud claims, and he “plotted to overturn the election outcome”.
- “Donald Trump corruptly pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes during Congress’s joint session on January 6.”
- “Trump sought to corrupt the US Department of Justice by attempting to enlist department officials to make purposely false statements and thereby aid his effort to overturn the presidential election.”
- Trump “unlawfully pressured” state officials to change the results of the 2020 vote in their states.
- “Trump oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives.”
- “Trump pressured Members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors from several States.”
- “Trump purposely verified false information filed in Federal court.”
- Trump “summoned tens of thousands” of angry supporters to Washington, DC on January 6 and instructed them to march to the Capitol.
- Despite being aware of the violence at the Capitol, Trump sent a social media message on the afternoon of January 6 publicly condemning Pence.
- “Trump refused repeated requests over a multiple-hour period that he instruct his violent supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol, and instead watched the violent attack unfold on television.”
- “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 intelligence community detected “the planning for potential violence” on January 6 and shared the information within the executive branch, including with the Secret Service and the White House National Security Council.
- Left-wing groups, including antifa, were not “involved to any material extent with the attack on the Capitol”.
- What the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies did not anticipate was Trump’s “provocation” to the crowd. “No intelligence community advance analysis predicted exactly how President Trump would behave; no such analysis recognized the full scale and extent of the threat to the Capitol on January 6.”
- While Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers “performed their duties bravely” on January 6, law enforcement “did not have sufficient assets in place to address the violent and lawless crowd”.
- Trump had the “authority and responsibility” to deploy the National Guard in Washington, DC, on January 6, but he did not act. While the Pentagon chief ultimately used his own authority to deploy forces hours into the riot, the panel “found no evidence that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed deployment of the National Guard”.
In the days after January 6th, Trump spoke to several different advisors, and in those conversations, he minimized the seriousness of the attack.
Here is new testimony from another one of the President’s senior advisors, Kellyanne Conway. pic.twitter.com/l4u7NRWVpW
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) December 19, 2022
