Commission releases final report Jan. 6 as new details on Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election – read it here

Days after the commission recommended four stunning criminal charges against former President Donald Trump on January 6, the panel released its final report this evening.

“Our country has come too far to allow a defeated president to transform himself into a successful tyrant, uprooting our democratic institutions, fueling violence and, as I see it, opening the door to those in our country whose hatred and bigotry threaten equality and justice for all Americans,” committee chairman Bennie Thompson wrote in his opening remarks.

The 845-page document is here.

CNN and MSNBC treated the publication as breaking news, but Fox News largely avoided it as the report came at 9 p.m. The Ingraham Corner.

The release comes after the committee began releasing transcripts of committee interviews, including one with Cassidy Hutchinson, former assistant to Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who detailed pressure from Trump loyalists on her to disclose key details of the events, recalling that happened. until January 6. Hutchinson, one of the committee’s key witnesses, told the panel in September that Stefan Passantino, a former Trump White House lawyer who originally represented her, wanted her to focus on protecting Trump when she appeared before the committee . She also said her boss, Meadows, told her that Trump knew he lost the election but continued with his false election claims anyway.

The 18-month investigation ended when control of Congress turned over to Republicans the following month. GOP leadership criticized the committee’s work, citing the Republicans who were among its members: Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, neither of whom was re-elected.

As she did earlier this week, Cheney wrote in the report that one of the “most embarrassing findings of our hearings” was the statement that Trump “sat in the dining room next to the Oval Office and watched the violent riot in the Capitol on television. .” ”.

“For hours, he did not make a public statement urging his supporters to disperse and leave the Capitol, despite requests from his White House staff and dozens of others to do so,” Cheney wrote and Trump’s behavior called a so-called “Breach of Duty”. “. and added: “Nobody who behaved like that can ever hold a position of authority in our country again. He is not fit for any office.”

Much of the report’s information was released to the public during eleven hearings over the summer and fall, presenting the story of the January 6 attack in a way that captivated much of Washington’s media and drew a rapt audience. Some details, such as text messages Fox News host Sean Hannity sent to Mark Meadows urging him to try to get Trump to make a statement during the attack, were made public last year.

But the report, like the hearings themselves, is designed to present the results in an easy-to-understand way, even at length. The first chapter of the report is titled “The Big Lie,” which has become shorthand for Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The chapter opens with Trump declaring victory on election night, even as the millions of mail-in votes expected to favor Joe Biden have yet to be counted. “So the President of the United States did what he planned to do well before Election Day: he lied,” the report said. The only adviser who supported Trump’s intention to declare victory that night was Rudy Giuliani, who, according to campaign adviser Jason Miller, was “absolutely drunk” that night.

The committee voted Monday to refer four criminal charges against Trump to the Justice Department, including obstruction of official proceedings; Conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to make a false statement; and inciting, aiding or abetting an insurrection.

“From the beginning of its hearings, the committee stated that President Trump and a number of others had drawn up a very specific set of plans that ultimately involved several separate elements, but all with one overarching goal: to obstruct, hinder, or interfere with corrupt the count of January 6 election votes and thus set aside the legal result of the election.

The committee also issued a series of recommendations, including barring Trump and others from holding office. They note that under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment, “any person who has previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, but is incited against it ‘in rebellion’ or an ‘enemy of’ comfort’ or ‘enemy’ of the Constitution” may be barred from federal or state office in the future.”

Other recommendations include giving congressional committees “reason to act” to enforce their subpoenas in federal courts, as a number of potential witnesses have failed to do so. Other recommendations relate to the sharing of intelligence between federal agencies about threats posed by violent extremism. A proposal to clarify that the vice president’s role in counting the electoral vote is ceremonial is about to become law. It is included in the year-end omnibus bill the Senate passed today and the House of Representatives will vote on Friday.

Another recommendation has to do with social and traditional media, targeting the wealth of misinformation spread among right-wing commentators, podcast hosts and other channels. Two voting system companies, Dominion Voting Systems and Smartmatic, have sued Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network for billions of dollars over post-election claims from hosts and guests.

“The committee agrees that individuals remain accountable for their own actions, including their own criminal actions,” the report said. “But congressional judiciary committees must continue to evaluate the policies of media companies that have led to the radicalization of their consumers, including inciting people to attack their own countries.”

The report listed instances where Trump also falsely claimed Dominion was involved in voter fraud, but the former president has yet to be named as a defendant in a defamation lawsuit by the company.

According to the report, Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy was among those who advocated for efforts to overturn the results.

According to the report, Ruddy “held President Trump’s ear and allegedly spoke to him on the phone at least four times prior to December.” He sent a memo to other close presidential aides recommending that the Trump team persuade one or more Republican-led chambers in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and even Minnesota to create “a separate, competing … to draw up a state list of selected voters’. whose predicted January 6 memo could turn into “a congressional battle with VP Pence calling the shots.” The report also contains a number of references to Maria Bartiromo’s November 29, 2020 interview with Trump, the first he has given since the election, in which he again made numerous unsubstantiated claims about the election.