Important points
The report is expected to include eight chapters covering the June and July hearings.
The report follows the panel’s recommendation that the Justice Department charge Trump with insurrection.
The committee also recommended that four Republican lawmakers be investigated by the Ethics Committee.
The Jan. 6 committee postponed issuing its final report on Wednesday, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s last-minute visit to Washington and other unspecified logistical complications.
“The Select Committee now anticipates filing and releasing its final report tomorrow,” a committee staffer confirmed to USA TODAY. “Additional Select Committee records could be released today.”
The staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal committee matters, did not specify what “select committee records” might be made public on Wednesday.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., suggested during the committee’s last formal meeting on Monday that the long-awaited report could be released as early as Wednesday, and committee staffers confirmed Wednesday morning that they planned to release it later that day.
Will the testimony of a Trump supporter incriminate the former president?
However, as the afternoon progressed, the committee changed its mind. According to the staffer, Zelenskyy’s meetings in Washington were part of the equation.
The report concludes an 18-month investigation into what led to the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814, as well as what occurred that day. With Republicans who have called the panel partisan and illegitimate taking control of the House in January, the report will be the committee’s final chance to summarise its findings and make recommendations to prevent another attack.
So far, here’s what we know:
The report will include at least eight chapters that will follow the committee’s landmark hearings in August.
The executive summary, which was released on Monday, contained 17 findings that former President Donald Trump was at the centre of a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which drew an angry, armed mob to the Capitol.
The committee recommended that the Justice Department charge Trump with four crimes: inciting an insurgency, obstructing Congress, conspiring to defraud the United States, and making false statements.
Trump slammed the panel as a “kangaroo court.”
The committee also recommended that four House Republicans be investigated by the Ethics Committee: Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Legislative recommendations should aim to prevent another attack. The committee has already approved a revision to the 1887 Electoral Count Act, which Congress will vote on this week as part of a spending bill.
The committee released an executive summary of the report on Monday, January 6th.
On Monday, the House panel released a 160-page executive summary of the report and showed video testimony from some of the approximately 1,000 witnesses it interviewed during its 18-month investigation.
And it voted to recommend to the Justice Department that former President Donald Trump be charged with four criminal violations stemming from his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and unleash a mob of his supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when lawmakers were certifying the electoral results showing Trump had lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
“I anticipate that our final work will be filed with the clerk of the House and made public later this week,” Thompson said on Monday. “In addition to that release, the select committee intends to make the majority of its non-sensitive records public before the end of the year.”
“The transcripts and documents will allow the American people to see for themselves the body of evidence we’ve gathered and continue to investigate the information that has led us to our conclusions,” Thompson explained.
Republicans release a competing report alleging that Democratic leaders and law enforcement left the Capitol vulnerable to attack.
Five House Republicans issued a counter-report to the House Jan. 6 committee’s final report on Wednesday, claiming that congressional leaders and law enforcement left the campus vulnerable to attack on Jan. 6, 2021, but that the Democratic-led investigation ignored those flaws.
Findings accused Democratic leaders of attempting to avoid the “optics” of a large police presence at the Capitol following the previous year’s Black Lives Matter protests. According to the report, Capitol Police lacked the necessary training and equipment to deal with a riotous mob, echoing the findings of an earlier Senate report.
Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota, and Troy Nehls of Texas wrote the rebuttal. The five were nominated to serve on the committee, but Banks and Jordan were rejected by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, and the others withdrew.
Will Trump loyalist Hope Hicks’ full account incriminate the former president?
On Monday, the committee revealed damaging testimony from former Donald Trump loyalist Hope Hicks. What else might be coming out about what she saw and heard in the White House that day – and in the days and weeks leading up to it – with the full report due out today, as well as a transcript of her lengthy interview with the House panel?
For example, Hicks told Trump that she believed he had lost the election to Joe Biden and that there was no evidence of widespread fraud, as he had falsely claimed. “I was becoming increasingly concerned that we were tarnishing his legacy,” Hicks said in videotaped testimony shown on a massive screen towering over the packed hearing room on Monday. Trump’s reaction? “He said something to the effect that nobody cares about my legacy if I lose, so it won’t matter,” Hicks explained. “Winning is the only thing that matters.”
Will Trump supporter Hope Hicks’ testimony on January 6 incriminate the former president?
Former Trump administration officials and legal experts believe her full testimony will be even more damning to the former president, both in public and in a court of law, if he is ever charged. “The significance of Hope Hicks’ testimony to the (Jan. 6) committee cannot be overstated,” says the author “Grisham, a Trump White House press secretary and communications director who worked closely with Hicks, agreed. “She was Trump’s most trusted aide, second only to Dan Scavino, and one of the few people he listened to. Her constant proximity to the president makes her invaluable as a witness.”
Trump claims that partisan committee criticism benefits him politically.
Trump, who has branded the committee partisan and illegitimate, has stated that the report will help him run for president in 2024.
On January 6, Trump stated that he wanted to prevent violence, but the majority of his statement was focused on politics.
“These people don’t understand that when they attack me, people who love freedom rally around me,” Trump said on the Truth Social website. “It gives me strength. What doesn’t kill me strengthens me.”
What exactly is an insurgency?
According to legal experts, convicting Trump of insurrection could be a difficult task for prosecutors. When the House impeached Trump for inciting the insurgency, a majority of 57 senators voted to convict him, but he was acquitted due to a lack of a two-thirds majority.
Part of the criminal court challenge would be proving Trump’s intent to incite rebellion against the government. Trump claims he was exercising his constitutional right to challenge election results. However, lawmakers said Trump’s clash with Secret Service agents over joining the mob at the Capitol, as well as his rally speech the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, urging protesters to “fight like hell,” could be evidence of criminal intent.
“It’s not an impossible bar to clear, but it’s a difficult bar,” David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami, said. “The issue here, as always, is that intent must be proven.”
Bennie Thompson: The January 6th committee has already had an impact.
The special committee established by the House to investigate the attack will expire when the current Congress adjourns this month. The unanswered question is what its legacy will be.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has told reporters that the panel’s impact on changing public perception of Trump has already been felt, even if the final report does not expand on revelations from the hearings.
Potential criminal prosecutions could be one indicator of its power. Legislation resulting from the findings, such as an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act, could serve as another barometer.
The legacy may also have an impact on House collegiality. The Democratic-led committee recommended that four Republican lawmakers be investigated for defying subpoenas. One of them, California Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, told Fox News on December 4 that if he becomes speaker in January, he would remove a committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., from the select committee on intelligence.
