House Jan. 6 Panel Releases Final Report on Capitol Riot Findings

The Thursday release unfolded as the panel released the transcript of 34 witness testimonies the day prior. Among the previous release were testimonies from former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and Trump lawyer John Eastman.

The House select committee investigating the events that took place during the January 2021 Capitol riot released its final report late Thursday, outlining how former US President Donald Trump engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn the 2020 election.

The 845-page report includes various documents based on more than 1,000 interviews and obtained emails, texts and phone records, among other evidence.

“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,” Committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), wrote in a foreword in the report.

The report goes on to underscore that "none of the events of January 6th would have happened without" the former commander-in-chief playing as ringleader.

The panel effectively mapped out its findings in the same manner it held its hearings, describing the pressure that was placed across the board on states, federal officials, lawmakers and ultimately US Vice President Mike Pence.

Between the November 2020 election and the Capitol riot, Trump and his inner circle "engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation, targeting either state legislators or state or local election administrators, to overturn state election results."

The report comes hours after the panel had earlier released transcripts of witness testimony from former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chris Krebs, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, former White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, Justice Department employee Ken Klukowski and Stephen Ayres, who attended the riot.

The findings were also released three days after the nine-member committee voted at its final meeting to refer Trump and a group of allies to the Justice Department on four criminal charges: insurrection, obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States government, and making false statements to the United States government.

The former president has repeatedly spoken out against the investigation and more recently against the referred criminal complaint, referring to the charges as "fake."

"The people understand that the Democratic Bureau of Investigation, the DBI, are out to keep me from running for president because they know I’ll win and that this whole business of prosecuting me is just like impeachment was — a partisan attempt to sideline me and the Republican Party," he wrote at the time.

Aside from bringing the 18-month investigation to a close, the late Thursday release also marks the final act for House Democrats, the party of which will no longer be in the majority in the lower chamber.