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The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol released its highly-anticipated final report Thursday, presenting a full account of its findings on former President Donald Trump’s efforts to maintain power.
Here are some key findings from the report:
The report puts the blame squarely on the former president: “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.”
The more than 800-page report describes the panel’s findings as a result of its 18-month investigation into the Capitol attack, including the basis for the committee’s recommendation that the Justice Department prosecute a former president for the first time in U.S. history.
The committee recommended anyone involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, including Trump, should be barred from government office.
One Trump speechwriter texted to someone during the riot: ‘Potus im sure is loving this.’
The former CEO of Overstock.com paid for Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio’s flight to a Washington, D.C., protest weeks before the attack.
The report gives a damning account of law enforcement’s response to troubling intelligence before the attack. The risk to the Capitol was “foreseeable,” the report said.
Trump tried to speak with Georgia’s secretary of state 18 times in an effort to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the state.
Trump aide feared ‘Trump world’: Cassidy Hutchinson says ‘Trump world’ tried to stifle her – Takeaways from Jan. 6 records
The latest from the report: High-profile Jan. 6 cases surface in report
Capitol rioters embroiled in some of the Justice Department’s most high-profile prosecutions related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack made cameos in the House committee’s final report.
The report’s section on the conspiracy movement QAnon is opened with a description of Doug Jensen, an Iowa construction worker who chased U.S. Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman through the Capitol while wearing a “Q” shirt. Jensen was found guilty of seven criminal charges tied to the Capitol attack and sentenced to five years in prison.
Jacob Chansley, better known as the “QAnon Shaman,” was pointed out by the committee as evidence of rioters’ susceptibility to former President Donald Trump’s directives. After the former president released a message urging the rioters to “go home,” Chansely told a crowd: “I’m here delivering the President’s message. Donald Trump has asked everybody to go home.” Another responded to Chansley: “That’s our order,” the report says. Chansley pled guilty in his Capitol riot case and was sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Details from the trial of five Oath Keepers – plus allegations against members of the Proud Boys, who await trial – bolstered the committee’s argument that the Capitol assault was planned by some in advance.
– Ella LeeDozens of witnesses impeded the Jan. 6 committee investigation by invoking the Fifth Amendment or refusing to testify, panel says
The committee revealed that it believed its investigation was impeded in serious ways by the fact that more than 30 witnesses invoked their Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, while others invoked executive privilege “or categorically refused to appear,” including Trump confidante and former advisor Steve Bannon, who was later convicted of contempt of Congress.
Many Trump lawyers and supporters, including Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Phil Waldron, and former Trump National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, all took the fifth when asked by the committee “what supposed proof they uncovered that the election was stolen.” Others who were central to understanding whether Trump conspired with others to engage in seditious conspiracy also took the fifth, the committee said, including Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. Meadows, who refused to testify and was held in contempt of Congress, “could have specific evidence relevant to such charges, as may (other) witnesses who invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination before this Committee.”
The committee said it was “particularly troubling” that certain witnesses took the fifth, including Flynn, for refusing to comment on such basic questions as whether he believed the violence on Jan. 6 was justified and whether he believed “in the peaceful transition of power” in the U.S. The House panel also suggested “that the Department of Justice further examine possible efforts to obstruct our investigation,” including why so many witnesses took the Fifth and what they might have been trying to hide.
– Josh Meyer’Potus likes the crazies’: Trump aide concerned about Ellipse rally
While planning the Jan. 6, 2021 rally near the White House, an aide to then-President Donald Trump expressed deep concern about including election fraud promoters Roger Stone and Alex Jones.
In testimony before the House committee, Trump aide Katrina Pierson referred to Jones’ involvement in a volatile November 2020 demonstration as the “kind of thing” that gave her pause. But Pierson also acknowledged in a text message to an associate of the pressure Trump was exerting to pump up the crowd, saying “POTUS . . . likes the crazies.”
“Pierson said that she believed this was the case because President Trump ‘loved people who viciously defended him in public.’ But their ‘vicious’ defenses of the President clearly troubled Pierson.”
The lineup of controversial speakers was described as the “original psycho list,” and Pierson was so troubled that she reached out to Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows for help. “Things have gotten crazy and I desperately need some direction,” Pierson wrote.
– Kevin JohnsonExtremist groups, QAnon adherents led charge into the Capitol, committee finds
Members of right-wing extremist groups and adherents to the conspiracy movement QAnon led the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the House committee investigating the attack said in its final report.
The report found that members of the Proud Boys, who allegedly planned to storm the Capitol ahead of the riot, “led the attack at key breach points.” Members of the Oath Keepers formed military-style “stacks” to gain entry to the building. And extremists like the militia group Three Percenters, white nationalist Groypers and QAnon believers egged the mob on at the “frontlines,” the panel found.
“The January 6th attack has often been described as a riot — and that is partly true. Some of those who trespassed on the Capitol’s grounds or entered the building did not plan to do so beforehand,” the committee wrote. “But it is also true that extremists, conspiracy theorists and others were prepared to fight.
