WASHINGTON, DC – They interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled across the country to speak with election officials who have come under pressure from Donald Trump.
Now, after six months of hard work, the House committee investigating the January 6 uprising on Capitol Hill is preparing to publish its findings.
In the coming months, committee members will begin to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president’s ongoing efforts and his allies to cover up the riots and reject suggestions that the president helped incite them. The commission also faces the burden of trying to convince the American public that its conclusions are credible and fact-based.
But the nine lawmakers, seven Democrats and one Republican, share a commitment to tell the full story for January 6, planning televised hearings and reports that will reveal their findings.
His goal is not only to demonstrate the severity of the insurgency, but also to establish a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s blatant pressure on states and Congress to reverse the legitimate election of Joe Biden as president.
“The whole picture will emerge, despite President Trump’s current efforts to hide it,” said Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney, the committee’s vice chair and one of two Republicans.
Protected in his office in the US Capitol, Remington Belford heard a screech and a bang, but had to turn on the TV to see what was happening: A crowd stormed one of the safest places in the world and the agitator was no more and nothing less than President Donald Trump, who He is now facing impeachment proceedings.
“I don’t think there is one area in all of this history where we are not learning new things,” he said.
Although the main events of January 6 are known, the commission maintains that the massive amount of material it has collected, 35,000 pages of documents to date, including text messages, emails and phone records of people close to Trump, show crucial details about the worst. . The attack on the Capitol in two centuries, one broadcast live on television.
They hope to fill in gaps in attack preparations, past rally funding, and the massive White House campaign to reverse the 2020 election. They are also investigating what Trump was doing while his supporters were hacking. towards the Capitol building.
Accountability can be difficult. Congressional investigations are not criminal cases and lawmakers cannot issue sanctions. Even as the commission does its work, Trump and his allies continue to propagate the lies of electoral fraud and work to appoint officials at all levels of state and local governments who share the same idea.
“I think our challenge is that the attacks on our democracy continue, and they didn’t end on January 6,” said another committee member, Adam Schiff, D-Calif. and chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
Either way, they hope to provide the public with a comprehensive report that captures what could be a “most serious and profound constitutional crisis,” according to Cheney.
“I think this is one of the largest congressional investigations in history,” he said.
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