The 17 key findings from the executive summary of the Jan. 6 committee's report
Washington — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol voted Monday to adopt the final report of its probe, which includes 17 takeaways related to former President Donald Trump's efforts to remain in power.
The committee released a 161-page executive summary of its findings as the clock runs out for lawmakers to complete their work before Republicans take control of the House. The full version, along with transcripts and other source material, is expected to be released later this week.
The panel also voted to send criminal referrals to the Justice Department, recommending charges against Trump and two allies.
The committee's findings do not fault the intelligence community or law enforcement for the security failures of Jan. 6, something Republicans are likely to criticize. The summary doesn't reveal much new information, but wraps up much of what the committee has already laid out in public hearings.
Here is what the committee says it has established over the course of the year-and-a-half-long investigation:
On the night of the 2020 election and in the weeks after, the committee says Trump "purposely disseminated false allegations of fraud related to the 2020 presidential election in order to aid his effort to overturn the election and for purposes of soliciting contributions." The committee says those false claims "provoked his supporters to violence on January 6th."
Despite "knowing" that he and his supporters lost dozens of election-related lawsuits and encouragement from his own advisers to concede, Trump refused to accept the results of the 2020 election, the committee notes. "Rather than honor his constitutional obligation to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed,' President Trump instead plotted to overturn the election outcome," the committee says.
The committee says Trump "corruptly pressured Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to count electoral votes during Congress' joint session on January 6th," despite "knowing that such an action would be illegal."
The committee also asserts Trump "sought to corrupt the U.S. Department of Justice" by trying to enlist DOJ officials to "make purposely false statements and thereby aid his effort to overturn the election effort." Trump then "offered the position of Acting Attorney General to Jeff Clark knowing Clark intended to disseminate false information."
Trump "unlawfully pressured state officials and legislators to change the results of the election in their states," the summary continues.
Trump also "oversaw an effort to obtain and transmit false electoral certificates to Congress and the National Archives," the summary adds.
Trump "pressured members of Congress to object to valid slates of electors from several states," the summary says.
The committee alleges Trump "purposely verified false information filed in federal court."
Based on false allegations of a stolen election, Trump "summoned" his supporters to Washington for Jan. 6, instructing them to "take back" their country, even though some of his supporters were armed, the committee says.
"Knowing that a violent attack on the Capitol was underway and knowing that his words would incite further violence, Donald Trump purposely sent a social media message publicly condemning Vice President Pence at 2:24 p.m. on January 6th," the summary continues.
The committee asserts Trump knew violence was underway at the Capitol and "refused repeated requests over a multiple hour period that he instruct his violent supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol, and instead watched the violent attack unfold on television," which "perpetuated violence at the Capitol and obstructed Congress's proceeding to count electoral votes."
The committee claims Trump took all of these actions "in support of a multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election."
The committee also claims the intelligence community and law enforcement agencies did "successfully detect the planning for potential violence on January 6th," and shared the information within the executive branch.
Intelligence gathered did not suggest that Antifa or other left-wing groups would have violent counter-demonstrations, and they were not involved to "any material extent" in the attack, the committee notes.
The summary also asserts that the intelligence community and law enforcement did not know the full extent of the "ongoing planning by President Trump, John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani and their associates to overturn the certified election results." The summary also claims the intelligence community and law enforcement did not "anticipate the provocation President Trump would offer in the crowd in his Ellipse speech."
The summary says Jan. 6 would have been "far worse" without the bravery of hundreds of U.S. Capitol Police and D.C. Metropolitan police officers, and says Capitol Police leadership "did not anticipate the scale of the violence that would ensure."
Finally, the summary says Trump "had the authority and responsibility to direct deployment of the National Guard in the District of Columbia, but never gave any order to deploy the National Guard on January 6th or on any other day." The committee also said they "found no evidence that the Pentagon delayed the timing of deployment of the National Guard."
Republicans are likely to criticize the report's findings, and have instead focused on how law enforcement and congressional leadership could have better prepared for the assault. GOP lawmakers have already been critical of the committee for not focusing energy on how to prevent another such attack.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has said Republicans will look into the work of the committee when the GOP takes control of the House in January. McCarthy has said Republicans will launch their own investigation to determine "why the Capitol complex was not secure" on Jan. 6.
Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong on Jan. 6, and has repeatedly called the committee's investigation a "witch hunt."
