The House of Representatives committee investigating the deadly attack on the US Capitol by enraged Donald Trump supporters on 6 January 2021 will hold its final public meeting at 1pm on Monday 19 December, bringing the curtain down on an 18-month investigation.
Since its work began, the bipartisan, nine-member panel under Mississippi’s Bennie Thompson has interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, obtained more than a million documents, issued over 100 subpoenas and held 10 public hearings, consistently attracting millions of TV viewers across the country and around the world.
Proceedings are expected to close with the presentation of the panel’s final report into the attempted insurrection, reviewing its key conclusions and recommendations for legislative amendments, before a vote on whether or not to issue criminal and civil referrals to the Department of Justice (DoJ), the House Ethics Committee and the Federal Election Commission against Mr Trump and several of his most prominent right-wing allies.
Any referrals would not compel the DoJ to act against the twice-impeached 45th president but would send a powerful message that, in the opinion of the committee, Mr Trump could be guilty of crimes related to incitement.
The DoJ is already conducting an investigation of its own into the events of that day under special counsel Jack Smith, which could ultimately derail the digital trading card salesman’s attempt to run for the White House again in 2024, as he has announced he intends to.
Prior to the assault on the Capitol, Mr Trump had complained for two months, on no evidence, that November’s 2020 presidential election had been stolen from him by a vast Democratic conspiracy to destroy ballot papers and rig voting machines to ensure victory for Joe Biden.
Mr Biden actually won the contest fair and square by a margin of 51.3 per cent to 46.8 per cent, securing the popular vote by 81.3m votes to 74.2m , but that did not stop Mr Trump’s misinformation campaign, which culminated with the “Stop the Steal” movement rallying in Washington, DC, on 6 January in a bid to prevent the final certification of the results at a joint-session of Congress taking place in the Senate and presided over by then-vice president Mike Pence, whom the rioters proposed to hang as punishment for his perceived disloyalty.
Mr Trump gave a speech on the Ellipse that day in which he told his supporters to “fight like hell” shortly before they duly laid siege to the legislative complex, leaving lawmakers and staffers fleeing for their lives and five people dead as violent brawls broke out between the conspiracy theorists and law enforcement.
Over the weekend, the former president took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to post two tweets he sent urging “peace” among his supporters in a rather thin and very late attempt to exonerate himself.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr Trump, also dismissed the committee’s planned actions in advance by labelling the panel a “kangaroo court” that held “show trials by Never Trump partisans who are a stain on this country’s history”.
Monday’s final meeting will be shown live on C-SPAN, across the major US news networks and live on The Independent, where we will bring you the very latest updates and breaking news lines.
