The conclusions of a House Committee investigation into the Capitol rioting on January 6 will be made public.

Members of the panel will begin to present their conclusions in the coming months, amid the backdrop of former President Trump and his allies' ongoing efforts to whitewash the January 6 Capitol riots and refute claims that he was involved in their instigation.
 
US House Committee

They've spoken with over 300 witnesses, gathered tens of thousands of documents, and gone across the country to speak with election officials who have been influenced by Donald Trump.

The House committee probing the Jan. 6 insurgency is getting ready to go public after six months of rigorous effort.

Members of the panel will begin to present their findings in the coming months, amid the backdrop of the former president's and his associates' ongoing efforts to whitewash the riots and refute claims that he was involved in their instigation. The committee also has the task of persuading the American people that its findings are based on facts and are credible.

However, the nine members - seven Democrats and two Republicans - are unified in their desire to convey the whole storey about what happened on Jan. 6, and they are arranging televised hearings and reports to do so.

Their purpose is to demonstrate not just the intensity of the violence, but also to draw a clear link between it and Trump's brazen pressure on states and Congress to overthrow Joe Biden's lawful election as president.

"Despite President Trump's continuous efforts to disguise the picture, the complete picture is coming to light," said Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the committee's vice chairwoman and one of the committee's two Republican members.

"I don't believe there is any aspect of this larger history that we aren't learning about."

While the basic facts of the Jan. 6 attack are known, the committee claims that the massive amount of information they've gathered - 35,000 pages of records so far, including texts, emails, and phone records from people close to Trump - is elucidating key details of the worst attack on the Capitol in two centuries, which was broadcast live on television.

Security personnel at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan 6, 2021
Security personnel at the US Capitol in Washington on Jan 6, 2021

They seek to fill in the gaps about the attack's planning, the funding behind the protest that preceded it on Jan. 6, and the White House's massive campaign to overturn the 2020 election. They're also looking into what Trump was up to when his supporters battled their way into the Capitol.

True accountability may come and go. Legislative inquiries are not criminal cases, and parliamentarians are unable to impose penalties. Even as the committee works, Trump and his friends continue to spread false information about election fraud while attempting to elect politicians who share their views at all levels of state and local government.

"I believe the challenge we confront is that the attacks on our democracy are still going on - they didn't stop on January 6," said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is also the head of the House Intelligence Committee.

Nonetheless, lawmakers intend to provide a detailed accounting to the public that reflects what could have been "an even more serious and deeper constitutional catastrophe," as Cheney phrased it.

Cheney stated, "I believe this is one of the most important congressional investigations in history."

The group is running out of time. If Republicans win the House majority in November 2022, the inquiry might be terminated. The final report from the committee is likely before then, with an interim report possibly coming in the spring or summer.

The committee hopes to "bring the people who ran the elections to Washington and tell their narrative" during the hearings, which could begin in the coming weeks, according to the panel's chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. He argues that their testimony will refute Trump's charges of election fraud.

Several election officials in battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, were interviewed by the committee concerning Trump's pressure campaign.

The panel is also looking at the preparations for Trump's Jan. 6 event near the White House, where he urged fans to "fight like hell" - and how protesters might have plotted to disrupt the electoral tally if they had gotten their hands on the ballots.

"There was an orchestrated effort to affect the outcome of the election by getting people to Washington... and finally, if all else failed, weaponize the individuals who came by sending them to the Capitol," Thompson added.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., rejected two of his nominees this summer, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, a strong Trump supporter, decided not to designate any GOP members to the committee.

Pelosi appointed Republicans Cheney and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both Trump opponents who shared the Democrats' determination to examine the incident, to the select committee after Republican senators rejected an evenly bipartisan outside commission.

"I believe it's clear that Kevin made a huge error," Kinzinger remarked. "I believe that part of the reason we've been able to move so quickly and effectively so far is because we've decided and have the opportunity to conduct this as a nonpartisan inquiry."

"I believe that in five or ten years, when schoolchildren learn about Jan. 6, they will discover the true narrative," Kinzinger said. "And I believe that will be contingent on what we do here."

Democrats say having two Republicans on their team has helped them reach conservative audiences who might still believe Trump's phoney claims about a rigged election.

Rep. Stephanie Murphy, D-Fla., adds, "They bring to the table opinions and the capacity to translate a little bit what is portrayed in conservative media, or how this would be viewed through a conservative lens." "And that's been quite beneficial."