Jan. 6 Report: Trump Instigated Capitol Insurrection

The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report asserts that Donald Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol, Mary Clare Jalonick, Eric Tucker and Farnoushi Amiri reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: The insurrection gravely threatened democracy and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk,” the bipartisan nine-member panel concluded.

Trump “lit that fire,” the committee chairman Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson writes. The 814-page report released Thursday comes after the panel interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings, and sifted through more than 1 million pages of documents.

The witnesses noted Trump’s “premeditated” actions in the weeks ahead of the attack and his wide-ranging efforts to overturn his defeat directly influenced rioters on Jan. 6, 2021.

The central cause was “one man,” the report says: Trump. The report recommended that Congress ban Trump from running again, Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman, and Jacqueline Alemany reported for The Washington Post.

The insurrection gravely threatened democracy and “put the lives of American lawmakers at risk,” the bipartisan nine-member panel concluded, offering so far the most definitive account of a dark chapter in modern American history.

It functions not only as a compendium of the most dramatic moments of testimony from months of hearings but also as a document meant to be preserved for future generations, Jill Colvin, Michael Balsamo, and Nomaan Merchant also reported for AP.

In a foreword to the report, outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the findings should be a “clarion 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 lawmakers described the former president’s pressure on states, federal officials, lawmakers, and Vice President Mike Pence to game the system or break the law. Reuters reported that in comments posted on his Truth Social network after the final report's release, Trump called it "highly partisan" and a "witch hunt."

He said it failed to "study the reason for the (Jan. 6) protest, election fraud." Yet, Trump lost more than 60 suits related to his claim that the election was stolen. When pressed to show his evidence, Trump produced nothing, not even his fraudulent golf scores.

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