Good morning. It has been 18 months since the January 6 insurrection, but the chaotic scenes of people storming the Capitol in Washington DC will be studied for decades to come.
Due to the seismic nature of the events that took place in the wake of the US presidential election, a House of Representatives committee has been conducting a year-long inquiry into the scope of former president Donald Trump’s involvement in the attack – and, crucially, whether any part he played was premeditated. The findings of this inquiry have been made public via a series of prime-time televised hearings that have laid out in meticulous detail who was involved, in what capacity, and what they knew.
Last night, the January 6 committee convened for its final scheduled hearing. It revealed that Trump did not contact any law enforcement agency or the Pentagon to quell the violence as he watched events play out on TV in the White House dining room.
For today’s newsletter, I spoke to David Smith, the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, about the key revelations from these hearings – and what they might mean for Trump’s future. That’s right after the headlines.
Five big stories
Climate crisis | The oil and gas industry has made £2.3bn a day in profit for the last 50 years, new analysis has found. The analysis, of World Bank data, finds that petrostates and fossil fuel companies have made a total of $52tn since 1970.
Economy | Increasing interest rates in Europe could push up the UK’s Brexit divorce bill by £5bn, the government’s Treasury office has said. The new estimate comes as the European Central Bank increased its interest rates for the first time in 11 years.
Conservatives | Rishi Sunak attacked Liz Truss over her £30bn plans for unfunded tax cuts as a new poll of Tory party members gave his rival a commanding lead in the race to become prime minister.
Ukraine invasion | Half of all the Russian spies operating under diplomatic cover around Europe have been expelled since the start of the war in Ukraine, the chief of MI6 has told a US security conference.
Crime | Rates of recorded crime in England and Wales have hit a 20-year high, while the proportion of offences leading to charges fell to a new low.
In depth: Five things we learned from the January 6 hearings
Up until the hearings began, the focus of media and political scrutiny on the insurrection in Washington DC was largely on the day itself. We now know a lot more about what was going on beforehand, in preparation for a battle over the presidency of the United States. Here are some of the most important details to have emerged from the month-and-a-half-long series of public hearings:
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Trump knew election fraud claims were untrue
Despite incessantly claiming that the 2020 election had been fraudulently stolen from him, evidence was presented during the second hearing that Trump was informed by a number of his closest advisers, including his own daughter, Ivanka Trump, that there was no truth to this assertion. One witness, Trump’s former attorney general William Barr, said Trump dismissed claims that there was no evidence of voter fraud. Barr added the former president was simply not interested in what “the actual facts are”.
“Yet he pressed ahead with the big lie,” David says, “and, in criminal terms, that’s important in showing that he was responsible.” The committee also found that Trump and his allies called for donations for an “election defence fund”, and raised nearly $250m in the weeks after the election. An investigator found that no such fund existed.
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Fake electors were to falsely hand Trump the White House
A central part of Trump’s plans to overturn the election was to have fake electors falsely declare a Republican victory in several battleground states.
To understand how Trump and his allies allegedly attempted to fraudulently rig the election, you need to know how a bit about how it’s supposed to work. Under the electoral college system, when the public’s votes are counted, each state sends a number of ‘electors’ – delegates – representing that state’s pick for the president. (This is a simplification, and yes, it’s weird.)
Sheerly as a matter of procedure, a certificate with the names of the official delegates for every state is sent to Washington DC, signed by the state’s governor, and a second certificate signed by the delegates is also sent declaring which party has won the votes in their state. But Trump’s allies tried to send certificates declaring Republican victories in seven states where the Democrats had actually won.
It didn’t work for a number of reasons – the most obvious being that Trump’s supporters were not legitimate delegates, so the names on the fraudulent certificates did not match those on the certificate sent by the states’ governors. Trump tried to circumvent this problem by pressuring Republican governors in Georgia and Arizona not to sign the certificates that contradicted the fraudulent ones. The governors refused to comply, which meant the fake certificates sent to Washington had no impact on the outcome of the election.
“It’s just incredible and outrageous and has never been tried before,” David says. Prosecutors in Georgia have said that all 16 fake electors are targets in a criminal probe. David adds: “It was evidence of Trump and his allies coming at this from every angle. I think the committee has been successful in showing it was a 360 degree approach.”
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Resistance at the justice department was nearly defeated
It wasn’t just governors and White House staff that Trump tried to strongarm. Three former justice department officials testified that Trump spent weeks pressuring top officials at the Department of Justice (DoJ) to declare the election corrupt.
The former acting attorney general, Jeffrey Rosen, said that Trump contacted him “virtually every day” – and the relentless campaign nearly succeeded. Just three days before the insurrection at the Capitol, Trump threatened to replace the DoJ’s acting head with a Trump loyalist who believed the stolen election myth. Trump eventually backed down, but only after it was made clear that there would be mass resignations if he followed through with his threats.
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The witness that shocked the world
Cassidy Hutchinson (pictured above) was billed as a surprise witness who would provide explosive testimony. As the longtime White House aide of Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, Hutchinson was able to provide some of the “most colourful and memorable revelations” from the hearings, David says.
Hutchinson described a fractured White House on the day of the insurrection, with a furious Trump at the helm. She said Trump encouraged the armed group, saying “they’re not here to hurt me. Let them in; let my people in.” Hutchinson testified that numerous White House staff tried to persuade Trump to ask the mob to stand down. Nevertheless, he resisted their calls.
In one particularly stunning revelation, Trump allegedly lunged at the steering wheel of the vehicle returning him to the White House, after he was told he would not be able to join his supporters. “That particular hearing painted a portrait of a man even more unhinged, even more crazed by power than we expected,” David concludes.
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The latest hearing: pleas to intervene were ignored
The final scheduled hearing described, in shocking detail, what was happening in the White House in the 187 minutes that passed between Trump’s rally, and his video that finally told protesters to go home. (Here’s a quick summary of some key moments from the live blog, and here’s a remarkable outtake from a Trump rehearsal for a speech the next day.)
The hearing revealed the extent of Trump’s inaction as protesters violently stormed the Capitol, through testimony from senior aides who were in the White House with Trump but were unable to persuade him to act – and text messages from others trying to do the same.
His own daughter and adviser, Ivanka, was among those who Trump ignored. As Guardian US contributor Lloyd Green writes: “Trump never walked to the press briefing room to say “enough”. He liked what he saw.”
“The case against Donald Trump in these hearings is not made by witnesses who were his political enemies,” the committee’s Republican vice-chair, Liz Cheney, said. “It is instead a series of confessions by Donald Trump’s own appointees, his own friends, his own campaign officials ... his own family.”
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What’s next?
All of this is only a flavour of some of the extraordinary evidence to have emerged – and there is more to come. “The dam has begun to break,” said Cheney. She added that the panel would return in September, because more people have come forward with new evidence concerning the insurrection. After that, the question will be whether attorney general Merrick Garland sees the evidence as enough to bring charges against the former president.
What else we’ve been reading
Polly Smythe compellingly argues that as workers’ collective power is increasing because of strikes and a squeezed economy, now is the time for unions to aim even higher and ask for more. Nimo
Jack Seale is entertainingly baffled by Renée Zellweger-starring true crime series The Thing About Pam, in a review that takes aim at the portrayal of a real-life murderer as a “killer Karen”. Hannah J Davies, deputy editor, newsletters
Emma Brockes chronicles her journey on learning how to say no . “I’m 46 and finally – finally – the thought ‘but what if they’re cross with me?’ might stop factoring so heavily in my decision-making,” she writes. Nimo
“From Athens to A24”, Slate’s list of the Top 50 pop culture deaths is killer reading. Steer clear if you’re still avoiding spoilers for The Sopranos or, er, Futurama. Hannah
Prolific actor-musician Zooey Deschanel answered reader questions with Dave Simpson. Deschanel touched on everything from being typecast as a “manic pixie dream girl” to her new tribute album. Nimo
Sport
Women’s Euros | Germany will face either France or the Netherlands in the semi-final as they overcame Austria 2-0 in a tight match.
Cycling | Tadej Pogacar’s hopes of dethroning Jonas Vingegaard as Tour de France leader were extinguished after the final mountain stage in the Pyrenees, in which the Dane increased his overall lead, with only three stages of this year’s race remaining.
Football | Nottingham Forest have sealed the shock signing of Jesse Lingard after hijacking West Ham’s move for the former Manchester United midfielder. The 29-year-old will be paid close to £200,000 a week.
The front pages
“Sunak goes on attack over tax as Truss takes poll lead” – that’s the Guardian’s splash story this morning, while the Times has “Truss and Sunak trade blows over tax pledges”. The i says “Mordaunt’s revenge: new plot to stop Truss”. The Telegraph goes with “No tax cuts until late next year, says Sunak”. As the Tory leadership contest enters something of a holding pattern, the Metro, Express, Mirror and even the Star lead with something elsem bearing almost identical furniture: the BBC’s admission that it “let Diana down”. The Mirror adds: “Cops must now charge culprits”. The Mail’s main story is “Channel migrants landed in Britain with guns”. The Sun has “Jade’s son joins Enders” – that’s Bobby Brazier who has landed a “top soap role”. And the big story in the Financial Times is “ECB vows to avert debt crisis as it lifts rates for first time since 2011”.
Something for the weekend
Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read and listen to right now
TV
Maryland (BBC Two/iPlayer)
Maryland began as a rapid-response cri de coeur from playwright Lucy Kirkwood after the murders of Bibaa Henry and her sister Nicole Smallman, Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa. Now, it has come to the small screen as a collage of female experience, with Hayley Squires and Zawe Ashton. It is generations of pain and fury distilled into something truly powerful. – Lucy Mangan
Music
Jamie T – The Theory of Whatever
Arriving six years after its predecessor, Jamie Treays’ new album reaps the benefits of a burgeoning interest in mid-00s alt-rock among younger listeners. Well-written and sparky as the straightforward rock tracks are, the album’s most interesting moments come when Treays steps away from that field, borrowing from Big Star and New Order for tracks bonded by a rough-edged grit. – Alexis Petridis
Film
Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time
Documentaries about acclaimed authors can often be formulaic; this honest and engaging study makes a refreshing difference. Robert B Weide, who has directed many episodes of TV’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, gives us a heartfelt personal film about Vonnegut – his hero, friend and father figure, and the writer of Slaughterhouse-Five, Cat’s Cradle and Player Piano. Touching and insightful. – Peter Bradshaw
Moment of Truth (BBC Sounds)
If you fancy yourself as a football manager, this podcast shows that there’s a whole lot more to the job than picking teams. James Nesbitt is on narrating duties while he follows Rotherham United’s manager Paul Warne and Oxford United’s Karl Robinson as they face the last three months of the season in all its high-pressured, sweary glory. – Hannah Verdier
Today in Focus
Liz Truss v Rishi Sunak
The race to become next UK prime minister has come down to an increasingly bitter battle between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak. Heather Stewart weighs up the decision being faced by Tory members, but denied to any other voters.
Cartoon of the day | Steve Bell
The Upside
A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad
Increased interest in reading has been an unexpected but positive by-product of the pandemic. In the US, independent book sales reportedly grew 75% from 2020 to 2021, as we learned how to spend more time indoors.
One beneficiary has been the Free Black Women’s Library, whose Los Angeles chapter, run by Asha Grant, has found a permanent home: the Salt Eaters bookshop in Inglewood. Eva Recinos takes a look around what Grant believes is a safe place for Black readers, that “centers and celebrates the stories of Black women, girls, femmes, and non-binary people”.
Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday
Bored at work?
And finally, the Guardian’s crosswords to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until Monday.
