The January 6 committee has released its full 845-page report on the Capitol Hill attack, blaming former US President Donald Trump for the events that took place. On Friday, Trump responded on social media, slamming the report.
The full report became available on Thursday evening. Just a few days earlier, the House of Representatives Select Committee responsible for producing the report recommended prosecuting Trump on a number of criminal charges.
Meanwhile, a separate report, produced by House Republicans, blamed bureaucratic mismanagement, improper security measures, and political interests for failures to prevent spiraling violence at the Capitol on January 6th.
The January 6 committee’s report
The January 6 committee’s report concludes an eighteen-month investigation. More than a thousand witnesses were interviewed, and information was extracted from millions of pages of documents and ten public hearings.
The committee is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans. Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, chairs the Select Committee, and Liz Cheney, a Republican is the vice chair.
“The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,” according to the report. “None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”
The January 6 committee accused Trump of attempting to contact key witnesses during the Select Committee’s investigation. The report said that “multiple efforts” were made by the former President to reach witnesses.
In addition to blaming Trump for inciting events at the Capitol on January 6th, the Select Committee has also accused the former president of conducting deliberate efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“The Select Committee estimates that in the two months between the November election and the January 6th insurrection, President Trump or his inner circle engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation, targeting either State legislators or State or local election administrators, to overturn State election results,” the report reads.
Just three days before the full report was published, the Select Committee recommended prosecuting Trump on four charges, including the obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the US, conspiracy to make a false statement, and inciting, assisting, aiding, and comforting an insurrection.
Trump responds
The former president responded to the Select Committee’s report on Friday with a post on Truth Social, the Trump-founded social media site.
“The highly partisan Unselect Committee Report purposely fails to mention the failure of Pelosi to heed my recommendation for troops to be used in D.C., show the “Peacefully and Patrioticly” words I used, or study the reason for the protest, Election Fraud. WITCH HUNT!” Trump posted on Truth Social.
In November, Trump announced that he would run for president again in 2024. However, many of the candidates he backed performed poorly during the midterm elections in November.
Some political analysts are betting that Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis is now a stronger contender for the GOP’s 2024 candidate than Trump.
However, if the Select Committee’s recommendations to prosecute the former President are taken seriously by the Department of Justice, DeSantis would be the least of Trump’s troubles. A lengthy legal battle could prevent him from running in 2024, and, if he lost, he could face up to twenty years in prison, hefty fines, and a permanent ban on holding public office.
The other Capitol report
On Wednesday, another report was released concerning the events that took place at the Capitol on January 6th. The report was conducted by five Republicans who were originally chosen to sit on the Select Committee.
The House Republicans responsible for the other report argued that the Democrat-led Select Committee was compromised of political bias.
“When Speaker Pelosi made the unprecedented decision to reject Jim Banks and Jim Jordan from sitting on the January 6 Select Committee—we knew she intended to play politics instead of addressing the massive security failures that lead to that day,” the report’s authors said.
The report accuses House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving of being “compromised by politics.” The report alleges that Irving, who was chief law enforcement officer of the House during the Capitol riot, coordinated closely with Pelosi and other Democrats, but failed to discuss security measures with Republican colleagues.
The report also criticizes Democrat leaders for hesitancy to call in the National Guard as the security situation dissolved. Its authors claim that the Democrats were worried about the “optics” of calling in the National Guard after similar responses to BLM protests in 2020.
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