
The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol on Thursday evening released its highly anticipated final report, capping off its year-and-a-half probe.
The report was originally scheduled to be released on Wednesday, but the release was postponed by one day, likely due to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington.
The report, which spans 845 pages, was made public three days after the committee held its final meeting and unveiled several criminal referrals targeting former President Donald Trump.
“This report will provide greater detail about the multistep effort devised and driven by Donald Trump to overturn the 2020 election and block the transfer of power,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), the chair of the committee, wrote in a foreword in the report, according to The Hill.
“Building on the information presented in our hearings earlier this year, we will present new findings about Trump’s pressure campaign on officials from the local level all the way up to his Vice President, orchestrated and designed solely to throw out the will of the voters and keep him in office past the end of his elected term,” he added.
The report is split into eight chapters and includes an executive summary, which the panel made public on Monday. Its release marks the final act of the committee’s investigation, which has been ongoing since the panel was created last summer.
The group held 11 public presentations, interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses and poured over thousands of documents to understand the events, before, on and after Jan. 6 over the past 18 months.
As a precursor to the publication of the report the panel made its final public presentation on Monday, during which members voted on criminal referrals to the Justice Department that target Trump.
The panel recommended that the agency investigate Trump for inciting, assisting or aiding and comforting an insurrection; obstructing an official proceeding; conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement.
Trump responded to Monday’s announcement by saying, “These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me. It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”
“The Fake charges made by the highly partisan Unselect Committee of January 6th have already been submitted, prosecuted, and tried in the form of Impeachment Hoax # 2. I WON convincingly. Double Jeopardy anyone!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Trump also said that the probes were an effort to undercut his 2024 presidential campaign. The insurrection charge could bar Trump from running for elected office again.
Trump has long insisted that he did not break the law on January 6, calling the committee’s investigation into his actions politically motivated and a “one-sided witch hunt."