Trump found to be ‘central cause’ of US Capitol riots: final report

Washington: The January 6 Committee’s final report into the US Capitol riots has concluded that Donald Trump was the “central cause” of the attack and that the extraordinary assault on American democracy would never have happened without him.

After an 18-month probe involving 1000 witnesses, a million documents and 10 public hearings, the committee has released its 814-page account of the event, asserting that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful result of the 2020 presidential election and that he failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the building.

Donald Trump incited the Capitol riot, the panel concluded.Credit: AP

It also warned America would be at risk of future coup attempts without sweeping changes to its electoral system and called for those responsible to be held accountable – including Trump.

“Evidence has led to an overriding and straightforward conclusion: the central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,” the committee wrote. “None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

The long-awaited report throws the spotlight on multiple Trump advisers, conspiracy theorists and right-wing extremists who played key roles in the now infamous attempt to overthrow Joe Biden’s electoral victory.

Stewart Rhodes, founder of the citizen militia group known as the Oath Keepers, in 2017. Rhodes was earlier found guilty of seditious conspiracy for a plot to overturn the 2020 US presidential election.Credit: AP

Among them was his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who oversaw efforts to put forward a “fake electors scheme” to flip the votes in states where Trump lost; Oath Keepers militia group boss Stewart Rhodes, who has since been convicted over his months-long plot to prevent Biden’s inauguration; and former electoral lawyer John Eastman, the author of a memo outlining a plan to stop the certification of the votes.

It also reveals the extent to which allies of the former president sought to stonewall investigators or intimidate witnesses to stop them providing information to the committee.

One of the most stunning examples involved White House aid Cassidy Hutchinson, whose explosive public testimony in June outlined how Trump knew his supporters were armed when he sent them to the Capitol last year and how he also lunged at his Secret Service driver when he was prevented from joining them.

But in new transcripts released by the committee, Hutchinson recounted how Trump allies kept dangling job opportunities at her and promising she would be “taken care of” if she remained loyal. She was also advised by her own lawyer at the time: “the less you remember, the better”.

The report’s eight chapters essentially tell the story of the multipronged plan to subvert the election, as outlined in the committee’s public hearings. This plan began months before the November 2020 election when the then president began sowing doubt about the validity of mail-in ballots.

One element included assembling a group of pro-Trump electors in key battleground states, who could create fake votes to be counted during the joint session of Congress on January 6. Other parts involved attempting to corrupt the Justice Department by pushing top law enforcement officials to cast doubt on the results; pressuring his vice president to stop Biden’s victory being certified; and ignoring family and top aides who disagreed with his view that he could overturn the election results.

The report also calls for the law to be strengthened to disqualify from office “anyone who has engaged in an insurrection” or given “aid and comfort to the enemies of the Constitution”.

Then-president Donald Trump watches video monitors showing the crowd gathered on the Ellipse on the morning of the riots, before he spoke. At right are his son Eric and daughter Ivanka.Credit: House Select Committee/AP

Departing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in the foreword note of the report that the committee’s work should be a “clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our Democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defence of our Constitution”.

The findings come days after the committee voted unanimously to refer Trump for criminal prosecution on four key offences: inciting or assisting an insurrection; obstruction of an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States; and conspiracy to make a false statement.

The panel also singled out lawyers Giuliani, Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Ken Chesebro for further investigation by the Justice Department as potential Trump co-conspirators.

The final report released by the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.Credit: AP

The referrals do not hold any legal weight or require the Justice Department to take any action as it continues its own separate probes into Trump’s role in the attack and his alleged mishandling of White House documents. However, it nonetheless sends a powerful signal that a congressional committee believes he committed certain crimes and must be held to account.

Last month, Trump announced he wanted to run for office again in 2024. The twice-impeached president has already spent months using the hearings as a fundraising tool by telling would-be donors he is the victim of a political witch-hunt.

“I DID NOTHING WRONG,” he said in an email sent this week soliciting donations.

“The January 6th UNSELECT Committee just unanimously voted to refer me to the Department of Justice to face charges. This is MADNESS… They’re only coming after me because I’m fighting for YOU.”

The insurgency on the US Capitol left four people dead, about 150 police officers injured and a nation shocked and divided.

According to the committee, Trump’s tweets incited much of the violence. One was put out in the early hours of December 19 urging his supporters to head to Washington on January 6. In that tweet, Trump attached false allegations that the election was stolen and promised a “wild” time on the day.

That Twitter invitation was followed by more than a dozen others in which he encouraged supporters to rally for him in Washington.

“That mob showed up. They were armed. They were angry. They believed the ‘Big Lie’ that the election had been stolen,” chairman Bennie Thompson said. “And when Donald Trump pointed them toward the Capitol and told them to ‘fight like hell’, that’s exactly what they did.”

In addition to laying out the definitive narrative of the Capitol attack, the committee – made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans – also makes a series of recommendations.

Among them is a call to overhaul the Electoral Count Act of 1887 – the archaic law that Trump and his allies sought to exploit to stay in power. This call was already adopted by the Senate on Friday AEDT. It will raise the threshold for objections to Electoral College votes from one member in each chamber to one-fifth of members in both chambers, essentially making it much harder to attempt a similar coup in the future.

The report also calls for federal agencies to adopt strategies to combat the threat of extremist violence and white nationalist groups, increase penalties for attempts to impede the congressional counting of votes, and expand protections for electoral workers if they are threatened.

The role of the media and social media is also highlighted, with the report suggesting that media company policies that have the effect of “radicalising” their consumers should be evaluated.

In comments posted on his Truth Social network after the report’s release, Trump called it “highly partisan” and a “witch hunt”. He said it failed to “study the reason for the [January 6] protest, election fraud”, Reuters reported.

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