‘Full Picture Coming to Light’: 6 Jan. House Panel Gears Up to Go Public With Findings

Since the Democrats established the House select committee investigating the 6 January riot at the US Capitol on 30 June 2021, it has been issuing a flurry of subpoenas to Donald Trump's former staffers, gathering information on the planning process behind the events on that day.

The 9-member House committee probing the 6 January 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol is preparing to go public after interviewing more than 300 witnesses and accumulating thousands of documents over the course of six months of work, reported AP.

The seven Democrats and two Republicans - Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Rep. Liz Cheney - are gearing up to start revealing their findings in the months ahead.

“The full picture is coming to light, despite President Trump’s ongoing efforts to hide the picture. I don’t think there’s any area of this broader history in which we aren’t learning new things,” Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chairwoman was cited as saying.

Planned televised hearings and reports will seek to convince the American public that their conclusions are fact-based, as they attempt to underscore the connection between the attack on the Capitol on 6 January 2021 and Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s triumph in the November 2020 presidential election. The former POTUS has repeatedly claimed the “rigged” 2020 election was “stolen” from him.

Throughout the past months, the committee has interviewed a spate of election officials in battleground states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania about Trump’s “pressure” campaign.

For the hearings, slated to begin in the coming weeks, the committee wants to “bring the people who conducted the elections to Washington and tell their story,” said the panel’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.

He added that the public needed to know that the events on 6 January were “an organised effort to change the outcome of the election by bringing people to Washington ... and ultimately if all else failed, weaponize the people who came by sending them to the Capitol”.

‘Most Important’ Congressional Probe

The panel has claimed that the 35,000 pages of documents, texts, emails and phone records from Trump allies and former staff — will be instrumental in supplying details about preparations before the attack. The materials in question purportedly shed light on the financing behind the “Stop the Steal” rally, where Trump told his supporters to “fight like hell”, that preceded the events at the Capital when Congress convened to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s win.

“I think that the challenge that we face is that the attacks on our democracy are continuing — they didn’t come to an end on Jan. 6,” stated panel member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

“I think this is one of the single most important congressional investigations in history,” added Liz Cheney.

Democrats have hailed the two Republicans appointed to the panel by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as an asset. Pelosi had created the House Select committee after Republican senators rejected a bipartisan outside commission.

“They bring to the table perspectives and ability to translate a little bit what is being reflected in conservative media, or how this might be viewed through a conservative lens. And that’s been really helpful,” said Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.

A ‘Sham Process’

On 6 January, 2021, when Congress was convened in a joint session to certify Democrat Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election, thousands of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building. Five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died in the mayhem.

The events were preceded by a rally of Trump supporters. The Democrats have insisted that Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud incited the so-called insurrection at the Capitol.

The former POTUS had repeatedly claimed the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him. Trump insisted such aspects of the election as “manipulated” voting machines and mail-in ballots in key swing states such as Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin had favoured his opponent. However, state courts refused to hear his campaign’s claims.

Despite vehemently rejecting the accusations, Donald Trump was accused of fomenting the Capitol violence and impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of incitement to insurrection. He was subsequently acquitted by the US Senate.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo insurrections loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. U.S.

© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana

The Democrats established the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot at the US Capitol on 30 June after Republicans blocked a bill for an independent commission on the matter.

The panel has since been gathering information on the planning process behind the events on that day, subpoenaing dozens of phone records from people linked to the rally that preceded the riot.

Hundreds of protesters have since been prosecuted over the Capitol mayhem, with the Biden administration branding them “domestic terrorists".

Dozens of Trump former staffers have also been subpoenaed for their testimony, with many refusing to cooperate. Some, like former chief adviser to Trump, Steve Bannon, and his ex-chief of staff, Mark Meadows, were subsequently held in contempt of Congress.

The 6 January probe has also requested the release of Donald Trump's White House records kept in the US National Archives. The former POTUS, however, has argued that such requests lack legitimacy, as his files are protected by executive privilege.

Republicans have slammed the work of the 6 January probe as no more than a political witch hunt and a "sham” process.

The committee's final report is expected before the November 2022 US midterm elections, with an interim report possibly to be released in the spring or summer.