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Jan. 6 committee postpones release of final report on Capitol attack, Trump

The Jan. 6 report will culminate an 18-month inquiry into what led to the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814 and what happened that day.

Bart Jansen Josh Meyer Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy Donovan Slack
USA TODAY
  • The report is expected to include eight chapters tracking hearings in June and July.
  • The report comes after the panel recommended the Justice Department charge Trump with insurrection.
  • The committee also recommended Ethics Committee inquiries for four Republican lawmakers.

WASHINGTON – The Jan. 6 committee postponed issuing its final report on Wednesday, citing the last-minute visit to Washington of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and some other unspecified logistical complications.

“The Select Committee now anticipates its final report will be filed and released tomorrow,” a committee staffer confirmed to USA TODAY. “The release of additional Select Committee records is possible today.”

The staffer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal committee matters, did not say what “select committee records” could be released on Wednesday.

The committee chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., had suggested on Monday during the committee’s last formal meeting that the long-awaited report would be issued as early as Wednesday, and committee staffers confirmed Wednesday morning that they were planning to release it later in the day.

Hope Hicks' Jan. 6 testimony:Will the Trump loyalist's testimony incriminate the former president?

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But as the afternoon progressed, the committee had second thoughts. The staffer told USA TODAY that Zelenskyy’s meetings in Washington were part of that equation.

The report culminates an 18-month inquiry into what led to the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814 and what happened that day. With Republicans who labeled the panel partisan and illegitimate taking control of the House in January, the report will be the committee’s last opportunity to summarize its findings and make recommendations aimed at preventing another attack.

Here is what we know so far:

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Former President Donald Trump displayed on a screen during a hearing Monday of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Jan. 6 committee released an executive summary of the report Monday

The House panel on Monday released a 160-plus page executive summary of the report and showed video testimony of some of the approximately 1,000 witnesses it has interviewed during the course of its 18-month investigation.

And it voted to forward to the Justice Department its recommendations that former President Donald Trump be charged with four criminal violations stemming from his effort to overturn the 2020 election results and set loose a mob of his supporters on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when lawmakers were certifying the electoral results showing that Trump had lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

“I expect our final work will be filed with the clerk of the House and made public later this week,” Thompson said Monday. “Beyond that release, the select committee intends to make public the bulk of its non-sensitive records before the end of the year.”

“The transcripts and documents will allow the American people to see for themselves the body of evidence we’ve gathered and continue to explore the information that has led us to our conclusions,” Thompson said.

– Josh Meyer and Bart Jansen

Republicans release rival report that says Democratic leaders, law enforcement left Capitol vulnerable to attack

Five House Republicans released a rival report Wednesday to the House Jan. 6 committee's final report that argued congressional leaders and law enforcement left the campus vulnerable to attack on Jan. 6, 2021, but that the Democratic-led investigation disregarded those failings.

Findings accused Democratic leaders of seeking to avoid “optics” of a large police presence at the Capitol after Black Lives Matter protests the previous year. Capitol Police lacked training and equipment to deal with a riotous mob, according to the report, which echoed findings of an earlier Senate report.

The GOP lawmakers who wrote the rebuttal are Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana, Rodney Davis of Illinois, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas. The five were nominated to serve on the committee, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Calif., rejected Banks and Jordan, and the others withdrew.

– Bart Jansen

Pelosi rejects Republicans:Pelosi rejects GOP picks Jordan, Banks on Jan. 6 committee; McCarthy threatens to pull out

Hope Hicks Jan. 6 testimony: Will Trump loyalist's full account incriminate the former president?

The Jan. 6 committee already revealed damaging testimony from former Donald Trump loyalist Hope Hicks on Monday. With the full report coming out as early as today, and a transcript of her lengthy interview with the House panel, what else might be coming out about what she saw and heard in the White House that day – and in the days and weeks leading up to it?

Hicks, for instance, told Trump she believed he’d lost the election to Joe Biden and that there was no evidence of widespread fraud as he had falsely been claiming. “I was becoming increasingly concerned that we were damaging his legacy,” Hicks said in videotaped testimony that was displayed on a huge screen towering over the packed hearing room Monday. Trump’s response? “He said something along the lines of nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won't matter,” Hicks said. “The only thing that matters is winning.”

Hope Hicks testimony:Will Trump loyalist Hope Hicks' Jan. 6 testimony incriminate the former president?

Former Trump administration staffers and legal experts believe her full testimony will be even more damning to the former president, both in the court of public opinion and a court of law should he ever be prosecuted. “The significance of Hope Hicks’ testimony to the (Jan. 6) committee cannot be overlooked," said Stephanie Grisham, a Trump White House press secretary and communications director who worked closely with Hicks. "Next to Dan Scavino, she was Trump’s most trusted aide and one of the only people he listened to. Her constant proximity to the president makes her not just valuable as a witness, but vital.”

 – Josh Meyer

Jan. 6 committee members list: Who is on the House panel?

  • Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss.
  • Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.
  • Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.
  • Rep. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.
  • Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.
  • Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla.
  • Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.
  • Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.
  • Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif.

Who is on the Jan. 6 committee?:Meet the members and chair

Cassidy Hutchinson Jan. 6 testimony: Unknowns remain about what happened in motorcade

After speaking to his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, near the White House, telling them “we are going to the Capitol,” Trump was so frustrated that his motorcade was headed back to the White House and not to the U.S. Capitol that he tried to grab the steering wheel, according to June testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, top aide to Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff.

Hutchinson testified in a summer hearing that she was told about the “angry response” by then-White House deputy chief of staff for operations Anthony Ornato, who told her that when Trump tried to reach the wheel, Robert Engel, the chief of Trump’s security detail, grabbed his arm.

That’s when Trump used his free hand to “lunge” toward Engel’s “clavicles.”

However, the House Jan. 6 committee's executive summary released Monday contains none of those details, instead  it describes his behavior variously as “irate,” “furious,” “insistent,” “profane” and “heated”  from "witnesses."

– Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy

Watchdog predicts more Jan. 6 ‘bombshells’

One government watchdog expects the full Jan. 6 committee report – expected to run as long as 800 pages or more – will help fill in blanks that remain, even after nearly a dozen committee hearings.

“Today, the committee will release its full report on the Jan. 6 insurrection — hundreds of pages packed with evidence, witness statements and bombshells,” Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, wrote in an NBC op-ed Wednesday.

But he argued nothing will be as important as the conclusion announced Monday that Trump, “as a matter of law, incited an insurrection against the authority of the U.S. government.”

– Donovan Slack

Liz Cheney: Trump should not be allowed to serve as president again

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., said Monday that former President Donald Trump should not be allowed to serve as president again.

Cheney, vice chair of the committee, began her remarks in the panel's final meeting by saying “at the heart of our republic is a guarantee of a peaceful transfer of power.”

“Every president in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority, except one,” Cheney said, calling Trump’s efforts on Jan. 6, 2021 the first time an American president refused his constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully.

“This was an utter moral failure and a clear dereliction of duty,” she said. “No man who would behave that way at that moment in time can ever serve in any position of authority in our nation again.”

– Joey Garrison

Recap of the final Jan. 6 hearing:House committee recommends DOJ prosecute Trump over Capitol attack

Committee urges Justice Department to charge Trump

In an unprecedented move, the committee recommended Monday the Justice Department charge Trump criminally.

The recommendation is nonbinding and the department already has a special counsel investigating Trump. But the evidence the committee gathered could provide a roadmap for prosecutors.

The committee argued Trump violated laws governing obstruction of Congress, inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement. The Justice Department declined comment on the recommendations.

Jack Smith was named special counsel on Nov. 18 to oversee the Justice Department's investigation into the presence of classified documents at former President Donald Trump's Florida estate as well as key aspects of a separate probe involving the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and efforts to undo the 2020 election.

Trump contends criticism from partisan committee helps him politically

Trump, who has called the committee partisan and illegitimate, said the report would help him run for president in 2024.

Trump noted that he wanted to prevent violence on Jan. 6, but spent most of his statement focused on politics.

"These folks don’t get it that when they come after me, people who love freedom rally around me," Trump said on the Truth Social website. "It strengthens me. What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger."

What does insurrection mean?

Convicting Trump of insurrection could be a high hurdle for prosecutors to clear, according to legal experts. A majority of 57 senators voted to convict him when the House impeached Trump for inciting the insurrection, but he was acquitted for lack of a two-thirds majority.

Part of the challenge in criminal court would be proving Trump's intent to spark rebellion against the government. Trump contends he was challenging election results as is his right. But lawmakers said criminal intent could be found in Trump's clash with Secret Service agents over joining the mob at the Capitol and in his rally speech the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, urging protesters to "fight like hell."

"It's not an impossible bar, but it is a difficult bar to clear," said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor in Miami. "The problem here, as always, is that you have to prove intent."

Inciting insurrection:A striking condemnation of Trump - but a high bar for prosecutors

Bennie Thompson: Jan. 6 committee already made an impact

The House created the special committee to investigate the attack and it will expire when the current Congress adjourns this month. The open question is what will its legacy entail.

The chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., has told reporters the panel's impact has already been felt in changing the public perception of Trump, even if the final report doesn't expand on revelations from the hearings.

Potential criminal prosecutions could be one measure of its influence. Legislation that grew out of the findings, such as an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act, could be another gauge.

The legacy could also affect collegiality within the House. The Democratic-led committee recommended ethics investigations against four Republican lawmakers for defying subpoenas. One of them, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, told Fox News on Dec. 4 he would remove a committee member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., from the select committee on intelligence if he becomes speaker as expected in January.

Jan. 6 committee news

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