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The Narrative of the January 6th Committee
A refresher on what they wrote in their final report
It’s likely Donald Trump will soon be indicted for the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and for his broader attempts to overturn the 2020 election. As we wait for the likelihood that he’ll face charges, it’s important to refresh ourselves on the details of what the government understands to have happened.
The U.S. House committee investigating the attack produced a report with 814 numbered pages in a PDF you can read free online. Here are some highlights from it.
The Plot to Overthrow the Election, According to the House Report’s Summary
Joe Biden won the November 3, 2020 election, but on election night, Trump insisted he himself was the winner. The only Trump adviser who agreed with him in that moment was Rudy Giuliani, who incidentally also appeared to be drunk. Later, the New York Bar suspended his law license for lying to courts, legislators, and the public.
Nonetheless, over the next two months, many in Trump’s inner circle came to support his narrative of a stolen election, and many members of the public believed it too.
On December 28, Jeffrey Clark drafted a letter to the Georgia legislature (though it was not sent) recommending that they choose different electors to come up with a different election result. On January 2, Trump made a desperate phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
The lawyer John Eastman’s plan was for Vice President Pence to simply refuse to count electoral votes from seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Eastman knew his suggestion was illegal. He had acknowledged before the election that the vice president had no power to refuse to count votes. Vice President Pence, for his part, did not buy into Eastman’s corrupt scheme.
Pence claimed he’d told Trump “many times” that they’d lost.
The Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Florida Three Percenters coordinated their actions on January 6. More than 140 law enforcement officers were injured. As many rioters would later testify, they had…
