After nine public hearings and interviews with hundreds of witnesses, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol released its final report late Thursday night.
The 814-page document is divided into eight chapters: The Big Lie, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Fake electors and the “President of the Senate strategy,” “Just call it corrupt and leave the rest to me,” A coup in search of a legal theory, “Be there, will be wild,” 187 minutes of dereliction, and Analysis of the attack.
The committee on Monday released a 160-page summary with an overview of its findings, which identified former President Donald Trump as the “central cause” of the Jan. 6 attack.
The summary of the report presented the committee’s conclusions as 17 findings, including that Trump knew his actions “would be illegal” when he pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to “refuse to count electoral votes”; that Trump “unlawfully” pressured state officials and legislatures to overturn the election; that he “oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives”; and that he never ordered the deployment of the National Guard once the attack was underway.
Jan. 6 committee Chairman Bennie Thompson had initially said the committee would be releasing the voluminous final report Wednesday, but the panel released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the report’s release would be delayed until Thursday.
Instead, the committee on Wednesday released the interview transcripts of 34 witnesses who were interviewed as part of the sprawling 17-month probe.
Among those witnesses whose testimony was released were former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, Infowars host Alex Jones, onetime Trump campaign adviser Roger Stone, and Trump-backed attorneys John Eastman and Jenna Ellis.MORE: House Jan. 6 committee releases interview transcripts of 34 witnesses
Most of the transcripts contained responses from the witnesses invoking their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
The panel on Monday said it would make multiple criminal referrals to the Department of Justice on at least four charges against Trump in connection to his actions surrounding the riot at the Capitol.
The committee said it would also be referring Eastman, who drafted a plan for Trump to cling to power by falsely claiming Pence could reject legitimate electors during the Jan. 6 certification of the vote, to the DOJ on multiple charges.
The referrals, however, are viewed as largely symbolic. The DOJ is not obligated to act on them, and the department has been conducting its own investigation into the events of Jan. 6.
The committee also said at least four sitting Republican members of Congress would be referred to the House Ethics Committee for “appropriate sanction,” including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Rep Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Rep Scott Perry, R-PA, and Rep Andy Biggs, R-Ariz.
Trump has dismissed the work of the committee, mocking it as the “Unselect Committee” and calling it a “political Witch Hunt.”
One part of me well knows Trump deserves to be in jail. One part of me knows that he never will do any time and one part of me also wants him to remain in the race and fight it out with DeSantis.
Is like that Japanese movie, Godzilla fighting Mothra,. both are terrible and awful, but you hope they kill each others and no more damage come from the current GOP.