Congress’ 18-month investigation into former President Donald Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol attack will come to a close this week, with the final meeting of the House panel investigating the attack taking place Monday.
Committee members have suggested that the former president could face criminal charges for the attack. The committee will vote on whether to make non-binding criminal referrals to the Justice Department later Monday.
Bennie Thompson: Trump summoned ‘armed and angry mob’ to Capitol
Rep. Bennie Thompson, the committee chairman, said Monday former President Donald Trump broke faith with American democracy by refusing to acknowledge he lost the 2020 election and then trying to overturn the results.
“In the end, he summoned a mob to Washington and knowing they were armed and angry, pointed them to the Capitol and told them to ‘fight like hell,’” Thompson said. “There is no doubt about this.”
Thompson said the committee’s final report would be released later this week and other evidence such as transcripts collected from more than 1,000 witnesses by the end of the year.
– Bart Jansen
How long is today’s hearing?
The hearing is expected to last no more than an hour today, far shorter than the committee’s past hearings.
Jan. 6 committee final hearing begins
Committee members are filing into the hearing room to close the 18-month investigation into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The committee is expected to lay out the major findings of their roughly 18-mionth investigation and vote on whether to criminally referral the former president to the Justice Department.
– Rachel Looker
How to watch today’s hearing
USA TODAY will livestream the hearing on its YouTube channel. C-SPAN will broadcast, as will other outlets such ABC, NBC and CBS.
What will Monday’s hearing cover?
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters that Monday’s hearing will include votes on criminal recommendations and the committee’s final report.
More:‘This is insane.’ Lawmakers relive Jan. 6 horror alongside fresh trauma of effort to rewrite history
In addition to criminal referrals, the panel could make recommendations to state bar associations about lawyers, to the Federal Election Commission about campaign violations and to the House Ethics Committee about lawmakers, Thompson said.
When will the Jan. 6 committee’s final report be published?
The panel’s final report is set to be published Monday though key materials such as transcripts of witness interviews conducted behind closed doors could be released later this week.
Pence doesn’t want Trump to face charges over Jan. 6
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who was a target of the Jan. 6 mob, said Monday he hopes the Justice Department will not bring charges against his former boss.
“I think the president’s actions and words on Jan. 6 were reckless, but I don’t know that it’s criminal to take bad advice from lawyers,” Pence told Fox News.
Pence dismissed the bipartisan Jan. 6 committee as partisan because its members were appointed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He emphasized that the Justice Department is not required to follow the committee’s recommendations on charges.
“I hope the Justice Department understands the magnitude, the very idea of indicting a former president of the United States,” Pence said. “I think that would be terribly divisive in the country at a time when the American people want to see us heal.”
– Maureen Groppe
What happened at the last Jan. 6 committee hearing?
Testimony and video evidence revealed during the Jan. 6 committee hearing in October showed congressional leaders pleading for help while the Capitol attack was ongoing.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., reacted to the violence at the Capitol in previously unreleased – and dramatic – footage, saying the attack was “all at the instigation of the president of the United States,” and an aide testified that, during the attack, Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy told Trump the rioters were “your people.”
Jan. 6 committee subpoenaed Trump
The October hearing closed with the extraordinary move of unanimously voting to subpoena the former president.
“(Trump) must be accountable,” Thompson, the committee chair, said. “He is required to answer for his actions.”
A day after the committee voted to subpoena Trump, the former president sent a 14-page memo to the panel complaining about a “Show Trial” and “Witch Hunt,” without addressing the subpoena itself.
How many people died on Jan. 6?
A bipartisan Senate report found that seven people died in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack. After the report was published, two Metropolitan Police officers, Gunther Hashida and Kyle DeFreytag, also died by suicide.
Hundreds of law enforcement officers were injured in the riot.
How many Capitol rioters have been arrested or convicted?
Federal prosecutors have charged more than 920 people in 48 states with participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and arrests have continue.
Some 41 rioters have been convicted in trials, and about 470 rioters have pleaded guilty to various crimes, according to the Justice Department.
Jan. 6 committee preps final report based on 9 hearings
Committee members, who are drafting their final report, said they documented how Trump repeatedly tried to overturn the 2020 election, pressured state officials, assembled a mob and sent it to the Capitol to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Amid nine blockbuster hearings this year, committee members also said Trump or his allies contacted witnesses in a potential attempt to intimidate them against testifying.
“I think most Americans know that attempting to influence witnesses to testify untruthfully presents very serious concerns,” the vice chairwoman, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said at the June 28 hearing.
– Bart Jansen
What did Trump do on Jan. 6? Inside his ‘187 minutes’
In chronicling what happened Jan. 6, 2021, the committee focused on roughly three hours between the end of then-President Donald Trump’s rally near the White House at 1:10 p.m. and the release of his video urging supporters to leave the Capitol and go home at 4:17 p.m.
The vice chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., accused Trump of dereliction of duty for not acting faster to halt his supporters battling police in what participants called medieval combat before rampaging through the Capitol to temporarily prevent the counting of Electoral College votes.
The committee gathered a chilling timeline for when the Capitol was breached, when lawmakers and staffers hid from rioters and evacuated the building, and when lawmakers and Trump’s own children pleaded with him through texts and calls to do something.
– Bart Jansen
What Trump did during those 187 minutes he was out of sight?:A breakdown of the 187 minutes Trump was out of view on Jan. 6 as aides urged him to act
Deceased Jan. 6 police officers’ family members refused to shake hands with GOP leaders McConnell, McCarthy
The family of a deceased Capitol police officer refused to shake hands with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., during a ceremony earlier this month honoring U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan Police.
Family members of Brian Sicknick, a U.S. Capitol Police officer who died after suffering strokes the day after the Jan. 6 insurrection, attended the Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony and declined to shake hands with GOP leaders.
Sicknick’s two brothers and parents shook the hand of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., but bypassed McConnell and McCarthy.
– Rachel Looker
More:US Capitol Officer Brian Sicknick died of strokes the day after riot, medical examiner rules
Extremist groups’ ties to Jan. 6
Across the street from the U.S. Capitol, where the House Jan. 6 committee investigating the president’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riot convened, members of extremist groups faced trial in federal court for criminal charges related to the attack.
Five affiliates of the right-wing militia group Oath Keepers, including leader Stewart Rhodes, stood trial accused of seditious conspiracy, or conspiring to forcibly oppose the authority of the federal government. Rhodes and a top deputy, Kelly Meggs, were both convicted of the rarely charged crime.
The House committee investigating the attack alleged that a Dec. 22, 2020 tweet sent by former President Donald Trump telling his supporters to come to D.C. on Jan. 6 for a protest – “Be there, will be wild” – amounted to a call to arms to the Oath Keepers and another extremist group, the Proud Boys. The government showed evidence in the five Oath Keepers’ trial that the groups coordinated ahead of the attack.
Five other Oath Keepers and members of the Proud Boys, including leader Enrique Tarrio, face sedition charges that will be tried beginning this month.
– Ella Lee
Oath Keepers trial:Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes found guilty of seditious conspiracy in Jan. 6 attack
More Trump legal battles ahead
The actions by the January 6 committee add to the many other legal battles former President Donald Trump already faces – including three civil lawsuit trials during the next 14 months. Trump and his family have denied wrongdoing.
April 2023 marks the scheduled trial date in the defamation case filed against Trump by former magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll. The New York City federal court case is a defamation lawsuit she filed against Trump for ridiculing her allegations that he raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room decades ago. Carroll also seeks to have the trial held in tandem with the battery case she filed against Trump last month.
Next up is the scheduled October 2023 civil trial in a massive civil lawsuit against Trump, his namesake business, and his oldest children. Filed by the New York State Attorney General’s office, the lawsuit alleges Trump falsely inflated the value of his assets to win lower interest rates on loans and insurance coverage.
And January 2024 is the scheduled trial date for a case that seeks class-action status on behalf of people who say they were conned into investing in a multi-level marketing company. Trump and his oldest children touted the company without disclosing endorsement payments, the plaintiffs argue. The people said the company accepted their investments but failed to produce the benefits touted by the Trumps.
– Kevin McCoy
Jan. 6 Committee decisions complicate WH campaign
Monday’s actions by the special legislative panel come amid challenges President Donald Trump faces during his recently announced third campaign for the White House.
Trump has faced criticism for the mid-term election losses by many of the candidates he touted for a so-called red wave that would propel Republican Party control of both congressional houses. The wave proved to be litte more than a gentle swell, delivering only narrow GOP control of the House, starting in January.
Some political surveys, including an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, found that GOP voter support for Trump’s latest campaign has plunged. Republicans and those inclined to vote Republican prefer Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, the poll found.
– Kevin McCoy
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