WASHINGTON — (AP) — The Jan. 6 committee set out to compile a public record for history of the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, but its final report has become so much more — a “roadmap to justice,” as Americans come to terms with Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The panel unanimously made four criminal referrals Monday against Trump for his role in the “multi-part conspiracy,” that started with his false claims of a stolen election and ended in the mob siege of the Capitol. It’s sending the recommendations to the Justice Department, which is already conducting its own probe.
In adopting its final report, the panel also recommended a congressional ethics investigations for House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and other members of Congress over defying congressional subpoenas for information about their interactions with Trump before, during and after the bloody assault.
“The committee is nearing the end of its work, but as a country we remain in strange and uncharted waters,” said Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. “Nearly two years later this is still a time of reflection and reckoning.”
He said, “We have every confidence that the work of this committee will help provide a roadmap to justice.”
‘ONE MAN’ CAUSED JAN. 6
Over its 18-month investigation, the panel laid out evidence that the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol was not a spontaneous protest, but an orchestrated “scheme” by Trump to try to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden.
Trump urged supporters to come to Washington for a “big rally” Jan. 6. He whipped up supporters in a speech outside the White House. Knowing that some were armed, he sent the mob to the Capitol and encouraged them to “fight like hell” for his presidency as Congress was counting the vote. He tried to join them on Capitol Hill.
All the while, Trump stoked theories from conservative lawyer John Eastman to create alternative slates of electors, switching certain states…