Jan. 6 panel unveils report, describes Trump 'conspiracy'
The House Jan. 6 committee맥스카지노s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a 맥스카지노multi-part conspiracy맥스카지노 to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, concluding an extraordinary 18-month investigation into the former president and the violent insurrection 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 맥스카지노 ranging from many of Trump맥스카지노s closest aides to law enforcement to some of the rioters themselves 맥스카지노 detailed Trump맥스카지노s actions in the weeks ahead of the insurrection and how his wide-ranging pressure campaign to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The central cause was 맥스카지노one man,맥스카지노 the report says: Trump.
The insurrection gravely threatened democracy and 맥스카지노put the lives of American lawmakers at risk,맥스카지노 the nine-member panel concluded.
In a foreword to the report, outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the findings should be a 맥스카지노clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defense of our Constitution."
The report맥스카지노s eight chapters of findings tell the story largely as the panel맥스카지노s hearings did this summer 맥스카지노 describing the many facets of the remarkable plan that Trump and his advisers devised to try and void President Joe Biden맥스카지노s victory. The lawmakers describe his pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence to game the system or break the law.
In the two months between the election and the insurrection, the report says, 맥스카지노President 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.맥스카지노
Trump's repeated, false claims of widespread voter fraud resonated with his supporters, the committee said, and were amplified on social media, building on the distrust of government he had fostered for his four years in office. And he did little to stop them when they resorted to violence and stormed the Capitol.
The massive, damning report comes as Trump is running again for the presidency and also facing multiple federal investigations, including probes of his role in the insurrection and the presence of classified documents at his Florida estate. This week is particularly fraught for him, as a House committee is expected to release his tax returns after he has fought for years to keep them private. And Trump has been blamed by Republicans for a worse-than-expected showing in the midterm elections, leaving him in his most politically vulnerable state since he won the 2016 election.
Posting on his social media site, Trump called the report 맥스카지노highly partisan맥스카지노 and falsely claimed it didn맥스카지노t include his statement on Jan. 6 that his supporters should protest 맥스카지노peacefully and patriotically.맥스카지노 The committee noted he followed that comment with election falsehoods and charged language exhorting the crowd to 맥스카지노fight like hell.맥스카지노
The report details a multitude of failings by law enforcement and intelligence agencies. But it makes an emphatic point that security failures are not what led to the insurrection.
맥스카지노The President of the United States inciting a mob to march on the Capitol and impede the work of Congress is not a scenario our intelligence and law enforcement communities envisioned for this country," the committee's chairman, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, writes in a separate foreword.
The report details Trump맥스카지노s inaction as his loyalists were violently storming the building. Returning to the White House from his fiery speech, he asked an employee if they had seen his remarks on television.
맥스카지노Sir, they cut it off because they맥스카지노re rioting down at the Capitol,맥스카지노 the staffer said, according to the report.
A White House photographer snapped a picture of Trump at 1:21 p.m., learning of the riot from the employee. 맥스카지노By that time, if not sooner, he had been made aware of the violent riot at the Capitol,맥스카지노 the report states.
In total, 187 minutes elapsed between the time Trump finished his speech at the Ellipse and his first effort to get the rioters to disperse, through an eventual video message in which he asked his supporters to go home even as he reassured them, 맥스카지노We love you, you맥스카지노re very special.맥스카지노
During those hours, dozens of staffers and associates pleaded with him to make a forceful statement. But he did not.
The committee quotes some of Trump맥스카지노s most loyal supporters blaming him for the violence.
맥스카지노We all look like domestic terrorists now,맥스카지노 longtime aide Hope Hicks texted Julie Radford, who served as Ivanka Trump맥스카지노s chief of staff, in the aftermath.
Hicks also texted a White House lawyer: 맥스카지노I맥스카지노m so upset. Everything we worked for wiped away."
The investigation's release is a final act for House Democrats who are ceding power to Republicans in less than two weeks and have spent much of their four years in power investigating Trump. Democrats impeached Trump twice, the second time a week after the insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate both times. Other Democratic-led probes investigated his finances, his businesses, his foreign ties and his family.
On Monday, the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans officially passed their investigation to the Justice Department, recommending the department investigate the former president on four crimes, including aiding an insurrection. While the criminal referrals have no legal standing, they are a final statement from the committee after its extensive, year-and-a-half-long probe.
Trump has tried to discredit the report, slamming members of the committee as 맥스카지노thugs and scoundrels맥스카지노 as he has continued to falsely dispute his 2020 loss.
In response to the panel맥스카지노s criminal referrals, Trump said: 맥스카지노These folks don맥스카지노t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me.맥스카지노
The committee has also begun to release 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 televised hearings over the summer and described in vivid detail Trump맥스카지노s efforts to influence the election results and indifference toward the violence as it occurred.
In the two interviews, both conducted after her July appearance at the hearing, she described how many of Trump맥스카지노s allies, including her lawyer, pressured her not to say too much in her committee interviews.
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Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.