Trump engaged in a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election, says January 6 committee

The House Jan. 6 committee’s final report accuses Donald Trump of a criminal, ‘multi-part conspiracy’ to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and failed to do anything to stop his supporters ransacking the U.S. Capitol. 

The panel’s members released their 845-page report on Thursday evening, after interviewing more than 1000 witnesses

‘The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,’ reads the report. ‘None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.’

Much of the information in the report was already public. But it includes some new nuggets, including how aides shot down the president’s idea of marching to the Capitol, protected by National Guard troops.

A text message sent by a Trump aide on the day suggested he president would be enjoying the spectacle of his supporters going berserk.

‘POTUS I’m sure is loving this, Trump’s speechwriter Robert Gabriel texted someone at 2:49 p.m.

The attack on the Capitol came after President Donald Trump had repeatedly made false allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from him and after he delivered a fiery speech on January 6, 2021, on the Ellipse, behind the the White House

The January 6 committee interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained millions of pages of documents as they investigated the deadly riot

Trump himself was quick to try to shift blame, claiming that House Speaker Nancy had ignored his recommendation for troops to be in used in Washington, D.C. — a claim repeatedly rejected by fact checkers. 

It follows a deeply difficult week for Trump, that included the release of his long hidden tax returns. 

And on Monday the committee referred four criminal charges to the Department of Justice, accusing the former president of insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and obstruction of an act of Congress. 

In a foreword, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi thanked the committee for its efforts.

‘As the select committee concludes its work, their words must be a clarion call to all Americans: to vigilantly guard our democracy and to give our vote only to those dutiful in their defense of our Constitution,’ she said.

The report’s chapter titles alone tell the story.

Starting from the ‘Big Lie,’ and ‘I Just Want to Find 11,780 Votes,’ as Trump and his allies looked to find evidence that they had been cheated, to the ‘Coup in Search of a Legal Strategy,’ as they formulated a way to prevent Congress certifying Joe Biden’s victory, it builds a crescendo before reaching, ‘Be There Will be Wild.’

 ‘The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, who many others followed,’ reads the report, saying the violence would not have happened otherwise

The nine-member committee concluded that the insurrection gravely threatened democracy and ‘put the lives of American lawmakers at risk’

Former President Donald Trump was quick to hit back on Thursday evening, posting a response minutes after the report was published. He blamed Nancy Pelosi for the violence

Trump was slow earlier in the week to respond to the committee’s announcements.

But on Thursday night he immediately hit back.

‘The highly partisan Unselect Committee Report purposely fails to mention the failure of Pelosi to heed my recommendation for troops to be used in D.C., show the ‘Peacefully and Patrioticly’ words I used, or study the reason for the protest, Election Fraud,’ he wrote on Truth Social with a characteristic display of capital letters and misspellings. ‘WITCH HUNT!’

The report spells out how Trump was repeatedly told that he had lost the election fair and square but still pushed ahead with his claims.

‘From the beginning, Donald Trump’s fraud allegations were concocted nonsense, designed to prey upon the patriotism of millions of men and women who love our country,’ wrote Rep. Liz Cheney, one of only two Republicans on the committee.

The report includes new details about planning for January 6, when Congress was due to convene to certify the results. 

Trump wanted to march to the Capitol with his supporters 

‘Just glad we killed the national guard and a procession,’ said aide Max Miller in a text message obtained by the inquiry.

It had kept up a drip, drip of tantalizing details during the week.

After setting out its charges on Monday, on Wednesday and Thursday it released more than 40 witness statements. They showed that more than 20 witnesses had invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves.

One of the bombshell revelations was that key witness, former White House aid Cassidy Hutchinson told investigators that she felt pressure from Trump’s circle to stay silent.

According to her testimony, a former Trump White House ethics lawyer told her that ‘the less you remember, the better.’

Stefan Passantino apparently told her there was no crime in having a faulty memory.

‘I don’t want you to perjure yourself, but “I don’t recall” isn’t perjury,’ he allegedly said. ‘They don’t know what you can and can’t recall.’

Cassidy Hutchinson was a top aide to ex-Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the time of the January 6 Capitol riot, and turned out to be a key witness in the investigation