(Washington) The House of Representatives committee looking into the Capitol insurrection, January 6, 2021, says in its final report that Donald Trump engaged in a criminal “multi-part conspiracy” to nullify the results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol. This concludes an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurgency two years ago.
The 814-page report released Thursday comes after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained millions of pages of documents. The witnesses — ranging from many of Mr. Trump’s closest aides in law enforcement to some of the rioters themselves — detailed Mr. Trump’s actions in the weeks leading up to the insurgency and how his extensive pressure campaign to undo his defeat directly influenced those who smashed the windows and doors of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The central cause was “one man,” the report says: Donald Trump.
The insurgency has gravely threatened democracy and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk,” the nine-member panel concluded.
In a foreword to the report, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the findings should be a “clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly protect our democracy and give our vote only to those who are conscientious in their defense of our Constitution”.
PHOTO JONATHAN ERNST, REUTERS
Outgoing Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi
The report’s eight chapters of findings tell the story much as the panel’s hearings did this summer — outlining the many facets of the remarkable plan Mr. Trump and his advisers have devised to try to undo President Joe’s victory. Biden. Lawmakers describe his pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to outsmart the system or break the law.
Trump’s repeated false allegations of widespread voter fraud resonated with his supporters, the committee said, and were amplified on social media, building on distrust of the government he claims. had maintained during his four years in power. And he did little to stop them when they resorted to violence and stormed the Capitol.
The massive and damning report comes as Mr Trump is running for president again and also faces multiple federal investigations, including inquiries into his role in the insurgency and the presence of classified documents at his Florida residence. . This week is a particularly busy one for him, as a House committee is expected to release his tax returns after he fought for years to keep them private. Additionally, Mr Trump was blamed by Republicans for a worse-than-expected performance in the midterm elections, leaving him in his most politically vulnerable state since winning the 2016 election.
It is also a final act for Democrats in the House of Representatives who hand over power to Republicans in less than two weeks and who have spent much of their four years in office investigating Mr. Trump. Democrats impeached Trump twice, the second time a week after the insurgency. He was acquitted by the Senate both times. Other Democratic-led investigations have delved into his finances, businesses, foreign ties and family.
On Monday, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans formally forwarded its investigation to the Justice Department, recommending that it investigate the former president for four crimes, including aiding an insurrection. Although the criminal referrals have no legal standing, this is a final statement by the committee after its extensive year-and-a-half investigation.
Mr Trump tried to discredit the report, calling the committee members “thugs and scoundrels” as he continued to falsely challenge his 2020 loss.
In response to the panel’s criminal dismissals, Mr Trump said: “These people don’t understand that when they come after me, people who love freedom gather around me. It strengthens me. »
The committee also began publishing hundreds of transcripts of its interviews. On Thursday, the panel released transcripts of two closed-door interviews with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who testified in person at one of the summer’s televised hearings and detailed Mr. Trump’s efforts to influence the election results and the indifference to the violence as it occurred.
In both interviews, both conducted after her July appearance at the hearing, she described how many of Mr Trump’s allies, including his attorney, pressured her not to say too much during his meetings with the committee.
With information from Eric Tucker, Farnoush Amiri, Lisa Mascaro, Jill Colvin, Nomaan Merchant and Michael Balsamo