WASHINGTON, Dec 22 (Reuters) – The congressional panel investigating the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol released its final report late on Thursday, outlining its case that the former President of the United States should United, Donald Trump, facing criminal charges for inciting the deadly riot.
The House of Representatives Select Committee also made public the transcripts of some of his interviews and witness testimony earlier Thursday and Wednesday.
The report, which runs to more than 800 pages, is based on nearly 1,200 interviews over 18 months and hundreds of thousands of documents, as well as the rulings of more than 60 federal and state courts.
The report lists 17 specific decisions, discusses the legal implications of the actions of Trump and some of his associates and includes criminal referrals to Trump’s Justice Department and other individuals, according to an executive summary released earlier this week. The report also lists legislative recommendations to help prevent another such attack.
On Monday, the committee asked federal prosecutors to charge the former Republican president with four felonies, including obstruction and sedition, for what they said were attempts to rig the November 2020 election results. to cancel and for encouraging the attack on the seat of government.
“Instead of honoring his constitutional obligation to ‘see to the faithful execution of the laws,’ President Trump instead planned to overturn the outcome of the election,” the House panel said earlier in 160 page summary of his report.
[1/4] A crowd of supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump fight with members of law enforcement at a door they opened as they stormed the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis/File Photo
In comments posted on his Social Truth network after the release of the final report, Trump called it “very partisan” and a “witch hunt”. He said he failed to “study the reason for the protest (January 6), electoral fraud.”
The request from the Democratic-led panel to the Justice Department does not compel federal prosecutors to act, but it was the first time in history that Congress has referred a former president for criminal prosecution. Trump announced in November that he would run for president again.
Among the memos released Wednesday and Thursday was one that showed a former lawyer for former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told her to “downplay” her knowledge of events leading up to the Capitol riot, telling her “at least you remember, the better. “
Attorney Stefan Passantino advised Hutchinson as she prepared for her February deposition before the panel to say she could not recall certain events, she told the committee in September, according to a transcript of her testimony .
Trump gave a fiery speech to his supporters near the White House on the morning of January 6, and publicly accused his vice president, Mike Pence, of not going along with his plan to throw ballots to Democrat Joe Biden to refuse.
The former president then waited hours to make a public statement as thousands of his supporters marched through the Capitol, attacking police and threatening to hang Pence.
Pence and lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 election when the Capitol was attacked after weeks of false claims by Trump that he had won that election.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Edited by Kenneth Maxwell
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