6 January Assault on The Capitol and aftermath 2021-2022

22 December
Final Report From the Jan. 6 Committee
The lengthy, eight-chapter document details former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Each chapter roughly mirrors the presentation of the committee’s investigative hearings this past year.
Jan. 6 Panel Issues Final Report, Placing Blame for Capitol Riot on ‘One Man’
The report from the House committee investigating the Capitol riot recommended that Congress consider whether to bar former President Donald J. Trump and his allies from holding office. .. The report expanded on this summer’s televised hearings, describing in detail what it called former President Donald J. Trump’s “multipart plan” to overturn the 2020 election.
(NYT) Declaring that the central cause of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was “one man,” the House committee investigating the assault delivered its final report on Thursday, describing in extensive detail how former President Donald J. Trump had carried out what it called “a multipart plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election” and offering recommendations for steps to assure nothing like it could happen again.
It revealed new evidence about Mr. Trump’s conduct, and recommended that Congress consider whether to bar Mr. Trump and his allies from holding office in the future under the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrectionists.
“Our institutions are only strong when those who hold office are faithful to our Constitution,” Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the vice chairwoman of the committee, wrote in the report, adding: “Part of the tragedy of Jan. 6 is the conduct of those who knew that what happened was profoundly wrong, but nevertheless tried to downplay it, minimize it or defend those responsible.”

21 April
Jan. 6 committee’s bombshells hiding in plain sight
(Politico Nightly) Without question, the select committee is sitting on a gargantuan stockpile of meaningful evidence — hundreds of interview transcripts and thousands of documents that are worth scouring for every last nuance of the sordid plot.
But the panel’s goal isn’t necessarily about unloading new salacious details (though there will certainly be some): It’s about reminding Americans with vivid and bone-chilling granularity just how close American democracy came to the brink, based on what’s already been revealed. And they plan to bring it to life via harrowing first-person accounts intended to revive the fury and fear that reigned the morning of Jan. 7. It’s about tracking Trump’s effort as it evolved and drew an increasingly sprawling cast of accomplices — from activists to lawyers to members of Congress.

1 April
Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Probably Won’t Be Splitting a Milkshake With Two Straws Any Time Soon
The former first son-in-law reportedly gave the House January 6 committee “valuable” and “helpful” information about the events surrounding the attack on the Capitol.
(Vanity Fair) In the nine months since the House of Representatives formed a select committee to investigate the events surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, numerous members of Donald Trump’s inner circle have refused to cooperate, preferring instead to risk contempt of Congress charges than reveal what is, more than likely, extremely damaging information about the former president. Surprisingly not among them? Jared Kushner, who was apparently more than happy to bring investigators up to speed on what he knows.
NBC News reports that Kushner—husband of Ivanka, son-in-law of Donald, and former senior White House adviser—met virtually with the panel on Thursday for more than six hours, after voluntarily agreeing to speak with the committee. While Trump family members have been known in the past to meet with officials investigating the ex-president only to plead the Fifth hundreds of times, Kushner reportedly saw no reason to stonewall the group.

7 February
What does Ivanka Trump know about Jan. 6? Congress is asking
(AP) — President Donald Trump was in the Oval Office with his daughter Ivanka and Vice President Mike Pence’s national security adviser on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, when he made yet another push to pressure Pence.
Trump again told Pence that he had a duty to reject Electoral College votes that would formalize Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election, something the vice president had no authority to do in his ceremonial role in Congress that day.
Throughout her time in the White House, Ivanka Trump was known as a rare voice who could get through to her father and talk him out of bad decisions, though her success was mixed. The former first daughter has kept an extraordinary low profile since her father left office and has distanced herself from him and politics since moving to Florida.
But her proximity to him on Jan. 6 could provide the committee with direct access to what Trump was doing during those crucial three hours when his supporters violently stormed Capitol.

Heather Cox Richardson: January 20, 2022
In the year that it has been in office, the Biden administration has had to deal with something unprecedented in our history: a former president who refused to admit he lost the election and who has worked ever since, alongside allies, to undermine the administration of his successor.
Trump’s plot to overturn the election and undermine our democracy continues to become clearer.
Trump held secret meetings in days before Capitol attack, ex-press secretary tells panel
Stephanie Grisham gave more significant details than expected about what Trump was doing before 6 January, sources say
(The Guardian) The select committee’s interview with Grisham, who was Melania Trump’s chief of staff when she resigned on 6 January, was more significant than expected, the sources said, giving the panel new details about the Trump White House and what the former US president was doing before the Capitol attack.
Grisham gave House investigators an overview of the chaotic final weeks in the Trump White House in the days leading up to the Capitol attack, recalling how the former president held off-the-books meetings in the White House residence, the sources said.

Amanpour and Company January 7, 2022
To discuss the Jan. 6th anniversary, democracy, and where America goes from here, Christiane speaks with Doris Kearns Goodwin and Timothy Snyder; Loretta J. Ross speaks with Michel Martin on whether January 6 provides an opportunity for reflection and healing.
Biden accuses Trump and his allies of holding ‘a dagger at the throat of America.’
(NYT) “The former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election,” Mr. Biden said, standing in the same National Statuary Hall invaded by throngs of Trump supporters a year ago. “He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost.”
Mr. Biden’s speech kicked off a commemoration that, instead of showcasing American unity, underscored just how fractured the nation remains a year after Mr. Trump’s refusal to accept defeat at the ballot box stirred backers to invade the Capitol, disrupt the counting of the Electoral College votes and send lawmakers scurrying for safety.
Mr. Biden and Democratic leaders have scripted a day of addresses, discussions and a candlelight vigil while Republican leaders stayed away, with many G.O.P. senators heading to Georgia for the funeral of their former colleague, Johnny Isakson.

4 January
Greg Sargent: The smoking gun that Liz Cheney is looking for on Trump comes into view
The short version: It’s likely the committee will explore recommending changes to federal law to further clarify that obstructing the electoral count in Congress is a crime subject to stiff penalties.
Jan. 6 panel seeks info from Fox News host Sean Hannity, reveals texts he sent Trump aides
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot asked Fox News host Sean Hannity to answer questions about newly disclosed texts he sent White House staff in the days before and after the attack.
The texts show Hannity expressing concern about would happen if then-President Donald Trump persisted in challenging the 2020 election results, and giving advice to Trump’s aides.
The texts, sent to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows and other Trump aides and White House staff, were revealed in a letter from the select committee seeking Hannity’s cooperation with the probe.
Trump cancels event planned for anniversary of Jan. 6 Capitol riot
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday canceled an event billed as a press conference that he was set to hold on the first anniversary of the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Trump reportedly planned to defend the rioters during that event, which he was going to hold at his golf club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
In a statement, Trump said he was canceling the event due to “the total bias and dishonesty” of the media and the House select committee investigating the former president’s role in the Jan. 6 attack.

Facebook Hosted Surge of Misinformation and Insurrection Threats in Months Leading Up to Jan. 6 Attack, Records Show
By Craig Silverman, ProPublica, Craig Timberg, The Washington Post, Jeff Kao, ProPublica, and Jeremy B. Merrill, The Washington Post
Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory between Election Day and the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, with many calling for executions or other political violence, an investigation by ProPublica and The Washington Post has found.
The barrage — averaging at least 10,000 posts a day, a scale not reported previously — turned the groups into incubators for the baseless claims supporters of then-President Donald Trump voiced as they stormed the Capitol, demanding he get a second term. Many posts portrayed Biden’s election as the result of widespread fraud that required extraordinary action — including the use of force — to prevent the nation from falling into the hands of traitors.

3 January
Fear, anger and trauma: How the Jan. 6 attack changed Congress
Five metal detectors ring the outer doors [of the House of Representatives] to prevent weapons from getting onto the chamber floor, … But the detectors aren’t there to deter armed insurrectionists. Instead, those detectors are there to prevent lawmakers or their staff from trying to commit violence against each other.
Some lawmakers and staff continue to receive help from counselors to deal with post-traumatic stress. Shouting matches are common occurrences, with the potential for actual physical confrontation lingering.
However …“I see a lot of Republicans who are not in that mix, whose interactions with those of us on the other side of the aisle have improved significantly in recent years, and it’s much better,” [House Majority Whip James E] Clyburn told The Washington Post.
“I have seen that in the last four, six to eight weeks, while at the same time you see Kevin McCarthy acting like a dunce,” he added, referring to the House minority leader.
Some Democrats are less worried about the state of current tensions than the future, viewing last January’s attack as an opening salvo by Trump and his supporters that laid the groundwork for bigger clashes to come.
“There’s a great alarm about how they will behave after the 2024 presidential election,” Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) said.
Since Jan. 6, the pro-Trump Internet has descended into infighting over money and followers
Pro-Trump and QAnon influencers have squabbled bitterly over online audiences in the year since Trump left office. They’re “desperate for money” and there’s only so many “people you can fleece,” says one researcher.
The far-right firebrands and conspiracy theorists of the pro-Trump Internet have a new enemy: each other.
QAnon devotees are livid at their former hero Michael Flynn for accurately calling their jumbled credo “total nonsense.” Donald Trump superfans have voiced a sense of betrayal because the former president, booed for getting a coronavirus immunization booster, has become a “vaccine salesman.” And attorney Lin Wood seems mad at pretty much everyone, including former allies on the scattered “elite strike-force team” investigating nonexistent mass voter fraud.
After months of failing to disprove the reality of Trump’s 2020 presidential election loss, some of the Internet’s most popular right-wing provocateurs are grappling with the pressures of restless audiences, saturated markets, ongoing investigations and millions of dollars in legal bills.

2 January
POLITICO Playbook: 4 startling polls you should read about Jan. 6
As the one-year anniversary of Jan. 6 approaches this week, news outlets are out with a spate of new polls showing how the siege of the Capitol has affected American politics.
THIS IS BAD — Roughly 4 in 10 Republicans and independents say that violent action against the government is sometimes justified, according to a startling new WaPo-University of Maryland poll.
THIS IS BAD, PART II — A new CBS/YouGov poll finds that 68 percent of respondents see the Jan. 6 attacks as “a harbinger of increasing political violence, not an isolated incident,” write CBS’ Anthony Salvanto, Kabir Khanna, Fred Backus and Jennifer Depinto. “That leads to larger misgivings. When people see it as a sign of increasing violence, they’re more likely to think violence is a reason democracy is threatened.”
— “There is 12% of the country, and a fifth of Trump’s 2020 voters, that want Trump to fight to retake the presidency right now, before the next election
On the other hand:
Poll: House’s Jan. 6 probe is popular — even among many Republicans
Three out of five respondents say Trump is responsible for the events that led to the U.S. Capitol riot.

2021

Heather Cox Richardson December 11, 2021
The picture of what was happening at the White House in the days before the January 6 insurrection is becoming clearer. (While we also have a decent idea of what was happening at the Department of Justice, what was happening at the Pentagon remains unclear.)
Shortly after Trump’s White House chief of staff Mark Meadows announced on Tuesday that he would no longer cooperate with the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) wrote a letter noting that Meadows had already shared material—thus indicating he did not consider it privileged—that he is now saying he won’t discuss. Thompson identified some of that material.
He said Meadows had provided the committee with an “email regarding a 38-page PowerPoint briefing titled ‘Election Fraud, Foreign Interference & Options for 6 JAN’ that was to be provided ‘on the hill’; and, among others, a January 5, 2021 email about having the National Guard on standby.”
Capitol attack panel obtains PowerPoint that set out plan for Trump to stage coup
Presentation turned over by Mark Meadows made several recommendations for Trump to pursue to retain presidency

Heather Cox Richardson November 12, 2021
This afternoon, a federal grand jury indicted Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon on two counts of contempt of Congress.
This indictment’s significance may well lie less in getting Bannon to cooperate than in warning others what is at stake if they do not. Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, has been defying a subpoena with statements similar to Bannon’s, and the committee has run out of patience.
Bannon Indicted on Contempt Charges Over House’s Capitol Riot Inquiry
(NYT) Stephen K. Bannon, a former top aide to Donald Trump, had refused to comply with subpoenas from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.
Mr. Trump has directed his former aides and advisers to invoke immunity and refrain from turning over documents that might be protected under executive privilege.
After holding Mr. Bannon in contempt, the House referred the matter to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, D.C., for a decision on whether to prosecute him.

18 October
Trump is suing the Jan. 6 select committee and the National Archives to block the release of his White House’s records related to the Capitol attack. The former president’s lawyers filed the suit in D.C. district court today. It names the Jan. 6 panel’s chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), and the national archivist, David Ferriero, along with the committee and the archives. And it calls the Jan. 6 probe “a vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.”

14 October
Jan. 6 Panel Moves to Recommend Criminal Charges Against Bannon
The House select committee investigating the Capitol riot will vote next week to recommend a criminal contempt of Congress charge against Stephen K. Bannon after he defied a subpoena.

8 October
Biden won’t block White House records sought by Jan. 6 committee despite Trump’s objections
Invoking executive privilege ‘not in the best interests’ of the U.S., says White House

7 October
The Battle of January 6th Has Just Begun
Nine months after the storming of the Capitol, Trump is more popular with the G.O.P. and his Big Lie is more widely believed.
By Susan B. Glasser
(The New Yorker) …a new Pew Research Center poll, released this week, showed that forty-four per cent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents wanted Trump to run for President again in 2024. … You can dismiss Trump as a joke, a poor sport, a clown, and a fool. …  What he is not, however, is irrelevant. …  Trump is being written about less, and thus talked about less on social media—fifty per cent less since March, according to Axios.
But look at where our politics are, nine months after the insurrection, and they tell a radically different story. Trump is, per Pew and other recent polls, both the overwhelming favorite among Republicans for 2024 and their continuing spiritual leader. (Two-thirds of the Republicans and Republican-leaning independents that Pew surveyed wanted Trump to continue to be a major national figure, a total that’s gone up by ten points since January. Yes, that’s not a typo—it’s gone up.) Just as important, he has succeeded in selling his party on his Big Lie about the 2020 election, on January 6th revisionism, and on taking a series of specific actions—from changing how states certify elections to purging state Republican officials who did not go along with his 2020 coup attempt—that will affect American democracy for years to come, whether or not Trump runs again.
… Sabato’s center put out an extraordinary survey last week, in conjunction with a group called Project Home Fire, that documented this crisis in ways I haven’t seen before. The survey, which is worth reading in its entirety, shows that this is not a problem of ideology or policy or the other markers of conventional American politics. It is something much deeper and more intractable: two parties whose members now hate one another with a fierce, anti-democratic, Constitution-threatening passion. Eighty-four per cent of Trump voters said that Democratic officials are a “clear and present danger” to society; seventy-eight per cent of Trump voters also said that Americans who strongly support Democrats are a “clear and present danger.” This level of antipathy is fully reciprocated by Democrats; eighty per cent of Biden voters surveyed said that Republican officials represent a “clear and present danger,” and seventy-five per cent of them said the same about Americans who strongly support Republicans. Things are so bad that fifty-two per cent of Trump voters and forty-one per cent of Biden voters said that they would favor seceding from America. January 6th may not have been the end of Trump so much as the beginning of something even worse.

24 September
Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Former Trump Officials Including Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon
(NPR) Subpoenas were also issued Thursday evening to Dan Scavino, a former Trump White House deputy chief of staff for communications, and Kashyap Patel, who was chief of staff to then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller.
The subpoenas — the first the panel has issued — compel the four to produce sought-after documents relevant to the deadly attack by Oct. 7 and then sit for a deposition the following week, either on Oct. 14 or 15.
Congressional subpoenas cannot be dismissed outright, but their issuance could lead to extended legal battles if the four former Trump officials decide to fight the effort.
The panel said the four have knowledge of important details related to the siege.

23 September
Biden White House leans toward releasing information about Trump and Jan. 6 attack, setting off legal and political showdown
(WaPo) Trump has said he will cite “executive privilege” to block information requests from the House select committee investigating the events of that day, banking on a legal theory that has successfully allowed presidents and their aides to avoid or delay congressional scrutiny for decades, including during the Trump administration.
But President Biden’s White House plans to err on the side of disclosure given the gravity of the events of Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with discussions.

21 September
Huge hack reveals embarrassing details of who’s behind Proud Boys and other far-right websites
The files include years of website purchase records, internal company emails and customer account credentials revealing who administers some of the biggest far-right websites. The data includes client names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords left in plain, readable text. The hack even exposed the personal records from Anonymize, a privacy service Epik offered to customers wanting to conceal their identity.
(WaPo) Epik long has been the favorite Internet company of the far-right, providing domain services to QAnon theorists, Proud Boys and other instigators of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — allowing them to broadcast hateful messages from behind a veil of anonymity.
Epik, based in the Seattle suburb of Sammamish, has made its name in the Internet world by providing critical Web services to sites that have run afoul of other companies’ policies against hate speech, misinformation and advocating violence. Its client list is a roll-call of sites known for permitting extreme posts and that have been rejected by other companies for their failure to moderate what their users post.
Online records show those sites have included 8chan, which was dropped by its providers after hosting the manifesto of a gunman who killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019; Gab, which was dropped for hosting the antisemitic rants of a gunman who killed 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018; and Parler, which was dropped due to lax moderation related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

16 September
Trump expresses solidarity with rioters arrested in Jan. 6 attack ahead of planned rally
“Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election,” Trump said in a statement. “In addition to everything else, it has proven conclusively that we are a two-tiered system of justice. In the end, however, JUSTICE WILL PREVAIL!”
Police are bracing for Saturday’s “Justice for J6 rally,” being planned by a nonprofit group led by former Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard.

Heather Cox Richardson: August 7, 2021
[T]oday’s testimony by Jeffrey A. Rosen, acting attorney general during the Trump administration, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, strikes me as being a game-changer.
What this means is that congressional investigating committees now have witnesses to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.
With that in mind, it’s worth noting that tonight the Senate voted 67-27 to move the bipartisan infrastructure bill forward, just hours after Trump called it a “disgrace” and warned, “It will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal.” And yet, 18 Republicans joined the Democrats, reflecting the reality that 72% percent of Americans support the measure and going on the record against it, as Republicans did in March with the popular American Rescue Plan, is even less attractive now than it was then.
Tonight’s vote suggests that Republicans are not all going to continue to move in lockstep with the former president. Those cracks could well widen as more and more information about his administration comes out.

30 July
Foreign powers amplified QAnon content to sow discord that led to Jan. 6 Capitol riots, extremism expert says

Heather Cox Richardson: July 27, 2021
This story is not going away, not only because the events of January 6 were a deadly attack on our democracy that almost succeeded and we want to know how and why that came to pass, but also because those testifying before the committee are under oath.
…the Movement Conservative narrative that “socialist” Democrats stole the 2020 election, a narrative embraced by leading Republican lawmakers, a story that sits at the heart of dozens of voter suppression laws and that led to one attempted coup and feeds another, a narrative that would, if it succeeds, create a one-party government, is coming up against public testimony under oath.
‘A hit man sent them.’ Police at the Capitol recount the horrors of Jan. 6 as the inquiry begins.
Four officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot testified to House lawmakers. The officers described in dramatic detail what they witnessed, and asked for a thorough investigation into what led to the attack
(NYT) “All of them — all of them were telling us, ‘Trump sent us,’” Aquilino A. Gonell, a U.S. Capitol Police sergeant, said on Tuesday as he tearfully recounted the horrors of defending Congress on Jan. 6, testifying at the first hearing of a House select committee to investigate the attack.
One by one, in excruciating detail, Sergeant Gonell and three other officers who faced off with the hordes that broke into the Capitol told Congress of the brutal violence, racism and hostility they suffered as a throng of angry rioters, acting in the name of President Donald J. Trump, beat, crushed and shocked them.
The refusal by most Republicans to participate in the hearing was just the latest indication of how a party that portrays itself as the champion of law enforcement has worked to thwart attempts to investigate the attack.
‘A Peaceful Transfer of Power Didn’t Happen This Year’
By New York Times Opinion
There are two stories about Jan. 6, 2021. One is based on the facts and events that the world saw at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The other is a sprawling work of collaborative fiction by supporters of former President Donald Trump who refuse to admit what happened.
The chasm between facts and mythology couldn’t have been deeper on Tuesday when the House of Representatives held a hearing into the realities of what transpired. Below are some examples of the facts and myths regarding those events. …
The heroes of Jan. 6 expose the lies that Republicans keep telling us
This is the truth of what happened that day — and the truth about the people who carried out what has rightfully been called an insurrection and an assault on this country’s democratic system.
As Jan. 6 hearings begin, Republicans side with the terrorists
(WaPo) Six Republican members of the House, escorted by a man in a giant Trump costume bearing the message “TRUMP WON,” marched on the Justice Department Tuesday afternoon to speak up for those they called “political prisoners” awaiting trial for their roles in the insurrection.
“These are not unruly or dangerous, violent criminals,” Rep. Paul Gosar (Ariz.) proclaimed at a news conference outside DOJ headquarters. “These are political prisoners who are now being persecuted and bearing the pain of unjust suffering.”

Heather Cox Richardson: July 26, 2021
…former president Trump and his supporters are consolidating their power over the Republican Party. Through it, they hope to control the nation.
The demand for Republican loyalty is playing out as the January 6 committee gets down to business. Organizing that committee has driven a wedge through Republican lawmakers. After an initial period in which leaders like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) expressed outrage and a desire to learn what had created the January 6 crisis, the leaders have lined up behind the former president. Emboldened, Trump’s supporters have become more aggressive in their insistence that they, not those interested in stopping a future insurrection, are the good guys.

20 July
What were the Capitol rioters thinking on Jan. 6?
If you believe many of the defense arguments made during the past half year, you might conclude that what happened Jan. 6 was a brief eruption of collective madness, and that responsibility for the event is spread so thin that true culpability doesn’t exist.
(WaPo) Many defendants are charged with misdemeanors, such as disorderly conduct; their legal defense rests on the distinction between causing the chaos and merely being swept up in it.
Lawyers blame Donald Trump, the media, naivete, trauma, unemployment, the pandemic, Washington elites, their clients’ childhoods and the singular nature of the event itself. The first sacking of the Capitol in 209 years — this time by Americans, not invading foreigners — has prompted extraordinary attempts to explain the actions of participants.

3 July
FBI launches flurry of arrests over attacks on journalists during Capitol riot
Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals — those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of President Donald Trump.
The arrests come at a contentious moment for the Justice Department and First Amendment advocates, who have sharply criticized federal law enforcement for secretly issuing subpoenas of reporters’ phone records during the Trump administration.
There is no federal law specifically against attacking a journalist, so the Justice Department has charged those who went after reporters or their gear on Jan. 6 with committing violence in the restricted grounds of the Capitol, or destroying property on the Capitol grounds. More such arrests are expected, according to officials.

30 June
U.S. arrests more than a dozen in Capitol riot, among the most made public in a single day
(WaPo) More than a dozen arrests in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot were announced or unsealed Wednesday, revealing charges against alleged supporters of extremist right-wing groups including the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys and “boogaloo boys” movement, and individuals accused of attacking the property of news media.
The arrests ranked among the most made public in a single day and came as an alleged Oath Keepers member reached an unexpected plea deal with prosecutors in the largest conspiracy case brought against those accused of obstructing Congress as it met to confirm the 2020 election results.
Mark Grods, 54, of Mobile, Ala., became the second from the anti-government group publicly to flip in the 16-defendant conspiracy case and cooperate with prosecutors in the latest sign of movement in the investigation.
House votes to create select committee for investigating Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol
Only two of the 211 House Republicans voted in favor of creating the panel — Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.), both of whom were among the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January on charges he incited the attack.
The 220-to-190 nearly party-line vote stands in contrast to a vote in May, when 35 House Republicans joined Democrats to back the creation of an independent commission to examine the root causes of the attack. While that group of House Republicans was willing to embrace an outside panel of experts evenly weighted between GOP and Democratic appointees, most were wary of a select committee that would be firmly in the control of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s handpicked participants.
The vote Wednesday was the latest example of how Republicans have rallied against scrutinizing an attack they once strongly condemned. Any investigation into the Jan. 6 attack would probably focus on the role played by Trump in inspiring the crowd that came to Washington that day in support of his falsehoods about the election being stolen.

28 June

A riveting minute-by-minute account
Donald Trump’s January 6 The view from inside the Oval Office.
By Michael Wolff
By dawn on January 6, the crowd of great unwashed was building, with the various organizers of the various events each pulling in larger-than-expected numbers. From the perspective of the White House, the protest was still just background noise, a tailgate party before the main event: Vice-President Mike Pence counting, and they hoped rejecting, the electors representing the final tally of the November vote. That would begin at 1 p.m.
The remaining group of aides around the president that morning in the White House … All had woken up with something close to the same thought: How is it going to play when the vice-president fails to make the move the president is counting on him to make? And make no mistake: Each fully understood Mike Pence was not going to make that move.

7 June
Takeaways: Senate report on ‘absolutely brutal’ Jan. 6 siege
(AP) — A Senate report examining the security failures surrounding the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol says missed intelligence, poor planning and multiple layers of bureaucracy led to the violent siege. It does not fault former President Donald Trump, who told his supporters to “fight like hell” to overturn his defeat just before hundreds of them stormed the building.
In an effort to be bipartisan — and to find quick agreement on security improvements to the Capitol — Senate Democrats wrote the report with their Republican counterparts and largely steered clear of addressing the former president’s role. The investigation by the two panels, the Senate Homeland and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Rules Committee, makes 20 recommendations for immediate security changes, including legislation to give the Capitol Police chief more authority, better training and equipment for law enforcement and an overhaul of the way intelligence is collected ahead of major events in Congress.
While praising the report, Democrats have said it also shows that a deeper look into the insurrection is necessary. Republican senators last week blocked legislation that would have formed a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the attack, including Trump’s role, his lies about the election being stolen from him and what led the rioters to lay siege to the Capitol.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that such a commission is “crucial,” and he held out the possibility of another vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged the Senate to try again to advance the legislation, which passed the House with the support of almost three dozen Republicans.

19 May
House backs commission on Jan. 6 riot over GOP objections
(AP) — The House voted to create an independent commission on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, sending the legislation to an uncertain future in the Senate as Republican leaders work to stop a bipartisan investigation that is opposed by former President Donald Trump.
Democrats say an independent investigation is crucial to reckoning what happened that day, when a violent mob of Trump’s supporters smashed into the Capitol to try and overturn President Joe Biden’s victory. Modeled after the investigation into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the legislation would establish an independent, 10-member commission that would make recommendations by the end of the year for securing the Capitol and preventing another insurrection.
The bill passed the House on Wednesday 252-175, with 35 Republicans voting with Democrats in support of the commission, defying Trump and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy. Trump issued a statement urging Republicans to vote against it, calling the legislation a “Democrat trap.”
Lawyer for ‘QAnon Shaman’ says U.S. Capitol rioters had ‘brain damage’
A defence lawyer for the so-called “QAnon Shaman” has refused to apologize for describing the U.S. Capitol rioters as “people with brain damage,” in an expletive-filled tirade that blamed former president Donald Trump for leading them astray.
Attorney Albert Watkins blasted his own client, Jacob Chansley, and the others who were at the Capitol in a Talking Points Memo article on Tuesday. Watkins argued that Trump had duped his client and others into joining the attack with a constant stream of lies, including his false claims about election fraud.
He also suggested that Chansley and the other rioters were vulnerable to Trump’s falsehoods because of alleged mental disabilities.
Capitol Rioters’ ‘Trump Defense’ Comes Up Again And Again. Will It Make A Difference?
A few weeks after his arrest for allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, the man known as the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley, floated an idea that dozens of others have tried — that Trump himself deserved some of the blame for his actions.
Chansley’s attorney wrote that his client had been consistent “in his assertion that but for the actions and the words of the President, he would not have appeared in Washington, DC to support the President and, but for the specific words of the then-President during his January 6, 2021 speech, the Defendant would not have walked down Pennsylvania Avenue and would not have gone into the U.S. Capitol Building.”
New round of arrests announced following US Capitol breach
(AP) — A woman heard shouting at police to “Bring Nancy Pelosi out” to be hanged during the attack on the U.S. Capitol is among those charged in a new round of arrests announced Wednesday by federal officials. … More than 400 people have been charged so far in the siege.

13 May
Marine Corps officer arrested for assault in Jan. 6 riot

1 May
Charged in Jan. 6 riot? Yes, but prison may be another story
With new defendants still flooding into Washington’s federal court, the Justice Department is under pressure to quickly resolve the least serious of cases. While defendants charged with crimes such as conspiracy and assaulting officers during the insurrection could be looking at hefty sentences, some members of the mob who weren’t caught joining in the violence or destruction could see little to no time behind bars.

28 April
Feds release videos of Jan. 6 riot showing police assault
The footage is segmented into 10 clips and includes footage from cameras on poles and officers’ body cameras. They show a close-up view of an angry mob yelling, “USA, USA!” and violently breaking past metal police barriers as officers try in vain to stop them. Khater is seen with his arm in the air, appearing to hold something, and then [Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after defending the U.S. Capitol] turns away from the crowd and retreats. Another officer doubles over and uses her hand to cover her eyes.

25 April
Capitol riot probes home in on Oath Keepers
(The Hill) Federal prosecutors appear to be zeroing in on the Oath Keepers following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, making the paramilitary group a priority among the more than 400 people facing criminal charges over the rampage.
A dozen co-defendants reportedly affiliated with the right-wing militia organization are facing conspiracy and other charges over their alleged roles in the storming of the Capitol.
Last week, another member of the Oath Keepers, Jon Ryan Schaffer, became the first defendant following Jan. 6 to plead guilty and agree to cooperate with law enforcement.

2 April (Update)
More Oath Keeper Suspects Charged in Capitol Riot Plot
Prosecutors say they were part of a military-style “stack” that stormed the Capitol.
(NYT) The Justice Department lodged charges on Friday against six more suspected members of the Oath Keepers, adding new defendants to a case that had already accused others in the right-wing militia group of an organized plot.

9 March
Oath Keepers founder wanted to use ‘force and violence’ in Capitol attack, U.S. alleges
The Justice Department in a filing late on Monday said it would disclose evidence to defense lawyers this week showing that Oath Keepers members and associates “were actively planning to use force and violence” during the Capitol riots that forced members of Congress and their staff to flee or hide.
The filing said the messages, exchanged on the encrypted texting app Signal, were sent by individuals including Stewart Rhodes, a former Army paratrooper and Yale-educated lawyer who founded the anti-government group in 2009.

19 February
Justice Department Charges Suspected Oath Keepers In Plot To Attack The Capitol
(NPR) The Justice Department charged six more people Friday it says are members of a right-wing militia group that plotted in advance of Jan. 6 to attack the U.S. Capitol.
The indictment offers the most sweeping evidence so far that members of the far-right extremist group known as the Oath Keepers had spent months allegedly planning to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in a bid to keep former President Donald Trump in power.
Last month, the Justice Department charged three members of the Oath Keepers with conspiring to undermine President Biden’s win. Officials said that Thomas Edward Caldwell, Jessica Marie Watkins, and Donovan Ray Crowl had allegedly set up training for urban warfare and riot control in preparation for the Jan. 6 siege shortly after then-President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory and had allegedly briefly discussed bringing weapons into Washington, D.C., by boat.
The Oath Keepers, founded by former members of the military and law enforcement, have a long history of antigovernment activity and have emerged — along with the far-right nationalist group the Proud Boys — as one of the most prominent extremist groups to have baselessly questioned the validity of the election and to have taken part in the storming of the Capitol.

2 February
Nancy Pelosi Calls for ‘9/11-Type Commission’ To Address Capitol Security
“Given the serious and ongoing security threats facing Members and the Congress, it is clear that there is a need for an emergency supplemental funding bill to meet institutional security needs. … It is also clear that we will need to establish a 9/11-type Commission to examine and report upon the facts, causes and security relating to the terrorist mob attack on January 6.”

18 January
FBI moves on alleged members of extremist groups Oath Keepers, Three Percenters
(WaPo) The Oath Keepers, the Three Percenters, and the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist group with ties to white nationalism, have drawn particular attention from FBI agents investigating the attack on Congress, as they work to determine whether those groups organized or directed the violence to block certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. Officials have said the Proud Boys in particular are an important focus of the FBI investigation.
The Capitol riot wasn’t a fringe ‘uprising’. It was enabled by very deep pockets
Brendan O’Connor
That siege was just one battle in a decades-long assault on democracy, funded by billionaire donors and corporate interests
(The Guardian) Already a picture of the individuals, organizations, and institutions who lent their weight to the movement that stormed Congress has begun to emerge. Last year, the secretive and influential Council for National Policy (CNP), which author Anne Nelson describes as “connecting the manpower and media of the Christian right with the finances of western plutocrats and the strategy of right-wing Republican political operatives,” called for state legislators in six swing states to reject Joe Biden’s election victory. CNP leaders were scheduled to speak at the rally on the morning of 6 January, where Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to march on the Capitol.
Carrie Severino, president of the Judicial Crisis Network, which has contributed millions to the Republican Attorneys General Association (Raga), listed as one of the participating organizations in the rally. Raga’s fundraising arm, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, sent robocalls encouraging Trump supporters to march on the Capitol ahead of the 6 January rally, at which the former chairman of Raga, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton, spoke. But major donors to Raga include not only rightwing bogeymen like Koch Industries, Walmart, or the Adelson family but also household corporate names like Comcast, Amazon and TikTok.

15 – 16 January
Robert Reich: The organizer of the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol just admitted that three House Republicans helped organize the attack.
Congressmen Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and Mo Brooks “schemed up” the attack that left five dead, according to Ali Alexander, the founder of Stop the Steal.
Worse yet, Representative Mikie Sherrill, a former CIA analyst, says that Republican members of Congress led the attackers on a reconnaissance tour of the Capitol the day before the attack.
The 14th Amendment explicitly states that anyone who has “engaged in insurrection” against the United States Constitution is disqualified from serving in the U.S. Congress.

‘Trump said to do so’: Accounts of rioters who say the president spurred them to rush the Capitol could be pivotal testimony
The accounts of people who said they were inspired by the president to take part in the melee inside the Capitol vividly show the impact of Trump’s months-long attack on the integrity of the 2020 election and his exhortations to supporters to “fight” the results.
‘I Answered the Call of My President’: Rioters Say Trump Urged Them On
(NYT) The defense from Trump supporters arrested in the Capitol assault is emerging in court papers and interviews — and could play a role in impeachment proceedings.
‘I’m facing a prison sentence’: US Capitol rioters plead with Trump for pardons
Arrested supporters say they were ‘listening’ to the president
Jenna Ryan, a Texas real estate broker who took a private jet to Washington to join the attack on the US Capitol, has pleaded with Donald Trump to pardon her after she was arrested by federal authorities.
After surrendering to the FBI on Friday, Ryan said: “We all deserve a pardon.”
“I’m facing a prison sentence,” she told CBS11 at her home. “I think I do not deserve that.”

Virginia Heffernan: We need the truth about 1/6
(LATimes) …while the second impeachment of Trump proceeds through a trial in the Senate, the Biden-Harris administration should open up a 1/6 Commission, a fact-finding effort entirely separate from the Justice Department’s and the FBI’s criminal investigations of those involved in the insurrection.
The commission’s work product wouldn’t be arrests but a comprehensive report detailing how and why Trumpite terrorists stormed the U.S. Capitol to stop the certification of an election.
Such a commission would not end cinematically with people in handcuffs or stints in Supermax. It would do nothing but inform us. But often bringing facts to light is the highest service to humankind. It’s certainly crucial if we’re to prevent such an attack from happening again — and calm the nationwide distress that is also threatening to undo us.
We need the impeachment and criminal investigations and prosecutions to provide justice, and a 1/6 Commission to supply truth

13 January
A ‘Stop the Steal’ organizer, now banned by Twitter, said three GOP lawmakers helped plan his D.C. rally
(WaPo) Weeks before a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, right-wing activist Ali Alexander told his followers he was planning something big for Jan. 6.
Alexander, who organized the “Stop the Steal” movement, said he hatched the plan — coinciding with Congress’s vote to certify the electoral college votes — alongside three GOP lawmakers: Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Mo Brooks (Ala.) and Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.), all hard-line Trump supporters.
“We four schemed up of putting maximum pressure on Congress while they were voting,” Alexander said in a since-deleted video on Periscope highlighted by the Project on Government Oversight, an investigative nonprofit. The plan, he said, was to “change the hearts and the minds of Republicans who were in that body, hearing our loud roar from outside.”

Nation’s governors prepare for worst, warn of long-term dangers to their capitols
The nation’s governors, facing increasing threats to their capitols and little support or information from the federal government, said Wednesday that they are bracing for long-term danger from extremist groups who already have breached government buildings, damaged property and been linked to threats against state leaders and their families.
“It’s going to take quite a while to turn back what’s been started here,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), who has participated in joint calls in recent days with other Midwestern governors about the possibility of fresh violence in the aftermath of last week’s riot at the U.S. Capitol and an FBI warning about armed far-right extremists gathering across the country this weekend.
We Mock the Rioters as Ignorant Buffoons at Our Peril
Many of them looked an awful lot like our community leaders and that will make repairing the damage much harder.
(Politico) As authorities continue to book additional rioters for criminal offenses, charges that may eventually include sedition and murder, we will gain a sharper picture of the crowd’s profile and learn more about these people who have embraced the QAnon religion and fallen under Trump’s spell. But in the early going, we’ve learned that many who rallied or rioted on January 6 were, in Trump’s memorable 2016 phrase, only “the best and most serious people.”
It would, of course, amount to an overcorrection if we attempted to characterize the riot as a middle-class insurgency. But many of the protesters who filled Washington’s 17 Hilton hotels to capacity and made the Grand Hyatt’s lobby their after-action lounge did not come from Dogpatch. Many hail from the Republican professional and political classes, and they fueled the rampage with their organizational skills and reputations.

12 January
Prosecutors are weighing sedition and conspiracy charges and expect to arrest ‘hundreds’ tied to Capitol riot.
(NYT) The top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., said on Tuesday that more than 70 people tied to the Capitol riot had been charged with crimes and that he expected that number to rise into the hundreds, with prosecutors looking at charging some rioters with sedition and conspiracy.
Michael Sherwin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said at a news conference that the federal investigation was unprecedented in its scope, with the entire Capitol grounds being “essentially, a crime scene.” He cautioned that the investigations would take months or longer.
The Capitol Rioters Weren’t ‘Low Class’
Adam Serwer
The business owners, real-estate brokers, and service members who rioted acted not out of economic desperation, but out of their belief in their inviolable right to rule.
(The Atlantic) The mob that breached the Capitol last week at President Donald Trump’s exhortation, hoping to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, was full of what you might call “respectable people.” They left dozens of Capitol Police officers injured, screamed “Hang Mike Pence!,” threatened to murder House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and set up a gallows outside the building. Some were extremists using the crowd as cover, but as federal authorities issue indictments, a striking number of those they name appear to be regular Americans.
What the Capitol insurgency reveals about white supremacy and law enforcement
Dr. Rashawn Ray
(Brookings) Make no mistake, the Capitol insurgency was about making America great for white people. In erecting a hangman’s noose, waving the Confederate flag, and wearing white nationalist paraphernalia, including an Auschwitz Concentration Camp shirt, the domestic terrorists showed America they fundamentally believe in maintaining and enacting white supremacy. Donald Trump, and Trumpism as an ideology, has opened a Pandora’s box of hate into the American mainstream, giving the permission some racists needed to reveal themselves proudly and wreak havoc on symbols of American democracy that have withstood wars and attacks for centuries.
Let’s talk about law enforcement. I have researched policing for years and know that the only way a limited amount of personnel is deployed is because an incident is not viewed as a credible threat. Despite repeated warnings from the FBI and other national security agencies, the grossly inadequate security preparation by Capitol Police shows negligence at the least and conspiracy at the most among the upper echelons of law enforcement.

14th Amendment Section 3: What it is and what it has to do with Trump
(CNet) How likely are lawmakers to pursue the 14th Amendment to remove President Trump from office?
Since the 14th Amendment has never been used to oust a sitting president before, constitutional law experts say that this option is unlikely. The amendment could still mean Senators and Congress members that supported the mob’s actions could be expelled. Rep. Cori Bush drafted legislation on Monday seeking to hold those individuals accountable.
New revelations about Trump’s cruelty demand a bigger response
Trump is now likely to get impeached for “incitement of insurrection,” as he should. But the Senate may not hold a trial until after he leaves office, and may not even convict. What then?
The 14th Amendment option
Now Trump has waged his own assault on our government and constitutional order. So the amendment might be invoked against him and others who may have incited the insurrection.
Morning Joe 1/12/2021

11 January
State capitals face threat of armed protests, FBI warns
The FBI warned Monday that armed far-right extremist groups are planning to march on state capitals this weekend, triggering a rush to fortify government buildings amid concerns that the violence that erupted at the U.S. Capitol last week could spread throughout the country.
Impeachment won’t keep Trump from running again. Here’s a better way.
Opinion by Bruce Ackerman and Gerard Magliocca
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, passed in the aftermath of the Civil War, bars Trump from holding another federal office if he is found to have “engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the Constitution of the United States.
(WaPo) The finding could be accomplished by a simple majority vote of both houses, in contrast to the requirement in impeachment proceedings that the Senate vote to convict by a two-thirds majority. Congress would simply need to declare that Trump engaged in an act of “insurrection or rebellion” by encouraging the attack on the Capitol. Under the 14th Amendment, Trump could run for the White House again only if he were able to persuade a future Congress to, “by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.”
House Democrats Move To Punish GOP Colleagues For Helping Incite Capitol Attack
(Forbes) House Democrats introduced resolutions Monday to censure, investigate and potentially remove House Republicans who played a role in inciting Wednesday’s violent attack at the U.S. Capitol building—particularly Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama.
Freshman Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) led 47 lawmakers in sponsoring a resolution that calls for House Republicans who played a role in inciting the violence to be investigated by the Ethics Committee and potentially be sanctioned or removed from office.
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits officials from holding office if they “have engaged in insurrection or rebellion…or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

He has resigned his post = a sacrificial lamb?
Outgoing Capitol Police chief: House, Senate security officials hamstrung efforts to call in National Guard
Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.
To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.
But, Sund said Sunday, they turned him down.
Police Reassess Security for Inauguration and Demonstrations After Capitol Attack
In the wake of last week’s assault on the Capitol, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington called for officials to expedite security preparations for the inauguration.
(NYT) Security experts warned this weekend that some far-right extremist groups have now started to focus attention on Inauguration Day and are already discussing an assault similar to the one on the Capitol, which led to the sacking of congressional offices and the deaths of at least five people, including a Capitol Police officer.
As of Sunday, nearly 400 people had joined a private group online dedicated to what is being billed as the “Million Militia March,” an event scheduled to take place in Washington on Jan. 20. On Parler, a social media site popular on the far right that is in danger of being taken offline because of rampant talk of violence, commenters were debating what tools they should bring to the march, mentioning everything from baseball bats to body armor to assault rifles.

9 January
Very long and terrifying
Michael Moore: The Terrorist Attack Is NOT Over. | Rumble with Michael Moore podcast
Many of the attackers are still in D.C. They were aided and abetted by certain members of the police, military and Republican party. And Wednesday’s terror attack was just a dry run for what they are planning next. Michael Moore shares his latest, urgent thoughts on the terror attack that occurred this week and the one we must prepare for.
Short text summary: The Terrorist Attack Is NOT Over.

Trump, muted and isolated, faces the threat of impeachment next week.
As Saturday dawned on a White House in turmoil, with President Trump unable to communicate on Twitter and other platforms, momentum for impeaching him a second time was rapidly growing among rank-and-file Democrats and some Republicans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday threatened to impeach Mr. Trump unless he resigned “immediately” for inciting the mob attack on the Capitol this week, and Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska became the first Republican senator to follow her lead.
The House is next scheduled to be in session on Monday, meaning that articles of impeachment cannot be introduced until then. The timing for an impeachment would be tight because Mr. Trump would have fewer than 10 days left in his term.
Yet the Constitution allows House lawmakers to introduce charges and proceed directly to a debate and floor vote in a matter of days, triggering a Senate trial that could take place even after Mr. Trump leaves office. If he were convicted, the Senate could vote to bar him from holding office again.
As federal law enforcement officials on Friday announced arrests in connection with Wednesday’s siege, Twitter said that Trump supporters had been using the [Twitter] platform to plan similar attacks, including a proposed one on the U.S. Capitol and state capitol buildings three days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration on Jan. 20.

8 January
Right-wing extremists vow to return to Washington for Joe Biden’s inauguration
“We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match,” wrote a popular Parler user who frequently posts about QAnon.
(NBC) In the wake of Wednesday’s riot at the Capitol, Trump supporters with extremist views feel emboldened and are vowing to return to Washington for the upcoming inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on January 20, using online platforms to rally each other.
“Many of Us will return on January 19, 2021, carrying Our weapons, in support of Our nation’s resolve, towhich [sic] the world will never forget!!! We will come in numbers that no standing army or police agency can match,” wrote a popular Parler user who frequently posts about QAnon, and is being tracked by the Anti-Defamation League.
Parler, Telegram chat rooms and the platform TheDonald.win were all used to plan and coordinate the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a riot. Posters explicitly stated their intentions to “occupy” the Capitol. QAnon conspiracy theorists and people associated with militia groups had a visible presence in Wednesday’s crowd.
Amanpour and Company: As rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s efforts to send in state police and the National Guard were blocked by the federal government for a full 90 minutes. Now, Hogan – a Republican – is calling for President Trump to resign or be removed from office. Joining these calls is the Lincoln Project, the anti-Trump Republican group formed in 2019. Its co-founder Rick Wilson calls the violence “sedition and insurrection,” and speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about what’s at stake.
Jake Angeli: What we know about the ‘QAnon shaman’ who stormed the US Capitol
The horned man is an actor from Arizona who believes in the QAnon conspiracy theory
Republicans attempting to deflect responsibility for the US Capitol insurrection on Wednesday have advanced a conspiracy theory that antifa – not Trump supporters – were to blame for the incident, even sharing a photo of a strange looking man wearing furs and a horned helmet and alleging he was a paid actor at a Black Lives Matter rally.

The latest draft of articles of impeachment against Trump includes “incitement of insurrection”
(CNN) House Democrats are currently planning to introduce articles of impeachment against President Trump as soon as Monday, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
Here’s a portion of the latest version of the articles of impeachment that will be formally introduced by House Judiciary Democrats on Monday, provided by a Democratic source. It includes one article: “incitement of insurrection.”
“President Trump’s conduct on January 6, 2021 was consistent with his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 presidential election. Those prior efforts include, but are not limited to, a phone call on January 2, 2021, in which President Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to ‘‘find’’ enough votes to overturn the Georgia presidential election results and threatened Mr. Raffensperger if he failed to do so. In all of this, President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government. He threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coordinate branch of government. He thereby betrayed his trust as President, to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.”

Prosecutors charge man photographed in Pelosi’s office, W.Va. legislator following Capitol riot
(The Hill) Federal prosecutors on Friday unveiled more charges following the Capitol riot this week, announcing that among those indicted are a sitting West Virginia state legislator and a man accused of entering and stealing items from the Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) office.
Officials from the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI field office in Washington, D.C., offered more details to reporters about their investigation and the 55 cases that they’ve brought against members of a mob that stormed the Capitol on Wednesday. The riot left five people dead.

Twitter Inc.: Permanent suspension of @realDonaldTrump
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them — specifically how they are being received and interpreted on and off Twitter — we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence.
Twitter bans Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell in QAnon account purge
(NBC) Twitter on Friday removed the accounts of Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell and other high-profile supporters of President Donald Trump who promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory.The permanent bans are among the highest profile that the company has instituted as part of its efforts to crack down on misinformation and calls for violence.
Flynn and Powell both met with Trump at the White House in recent weeks as part of efforts to overturn the presidential election results. They are also high-profile figures in the QAnon community, and Flynn even took an “oath” to the conspiracy theory last year.

7 January
Some among America’s military allies believe Trump deliberately attempted a coup and may have had help from federal law-enforcement officials
(Business Insider) Multiple European security officials told Insider that President Donald Trump appeared to have tacit support among US federal agencies responsible for securing the Capitol complex in Wednesday’s coup attempt.
Insider is reporting this information because it illustrates the serious repercussions of Wednesday’s events: Even if they are mistaken, some among America’s international military allies are now willing to give credence to the idea that Trump deliberately tried to violently overturn an election and had help from some federal law-enforcement agents.
“We train alongside the US federal law enforcement to handle these very matters, and it’s obvious that large parts of any successful plan were just ignored,” one source told us.

World leaders condemn ‘assault on democracy’ at US Capitol
AFP – World leaders and governments on Wednesday expressed shock and outrage at the storming of the US Capitol in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.

How the U.S. Capitol Police were overrun in a ‘monumental’ security failure
(WaPo) On Thursday, a day after hundreds of President Trump’s supporters stormed and ransacked the Capitol, lawmakers and police officials were still trying to understand the cascade of failures that caused the Capitol Police force — a city-size police department focused on a single complex — to let that building fall.

Invoke the 25th Amendment to save the country from Donald Trump
John Hudak
(Brookings) The president’s dangerous rhetoric and call to arms led a group of individuals to attack the national legislature, and in the process put at risk the lives of several members of the line of succession: Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley. Americans watched in horror as domestic terrorists—fueled by an unstable president and QAnon conspiracy theories—invaded the Congress, stopped its constitutionally-required operations, all while the public was unsure as to the safety of the individuals who sit first, second, and third in line for the presidency.
Law Enforcement And Social Media Identifying U.S. Capitol Mob Members
(NPR) The FBI and Washington, D.C., Metro police are asking the public for help identifying some of the people involved in assaults, break-ins and vandalism at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department … is offering a reward of up to $1,000 to anyone who provides information leading to an arrest. …already, news organizations and people active on social media have begun identifying some of those who played prominent roles in the unprecedented scene at the Capitol. One of the most prominent is Richard Barnett, who was photographed with his feet up on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk. Afterward, he proudly identified himself to New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg. … Another prominent character who was part of the mob inside the Capitol, Jake Angeli, is a QAnon supporter known for his painted face and horned fur hat. Horn-helmed QAnon rioter among far-right ‘stars’ in U.S. Capitol attack

The Security Threat Hiding in Plain Sight
How Mob Violence Came to Washington
(Foreign Affairs) The chaos was more than a security failure, however; it also showed just how difficult it is for law enforcement, the military, and other security forces to act in a highly political environment. When Trump encourages violence and demonizes political opponents, he makes it nearly impossible for security officials to act without being seen as taking sides in a domestic political dispute, a perception that they are desperate to avoid. …
In recent years, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have already increased their focus on antigovernment violence, but the administration hindered a stronger response.
Hear what Trump told crowd before riot
CNN’s Erin Burnett takes a look at what President Donald Trump told a crowd of supporters before rioters gathered at the US Capitol to protest the 2020 election.

Fact Check: Did Trump Family Hold a Capitol Riot Watch Party?
(Newsweek) …the original is just over four minutes long and is still available on Trump Jr.’s Facebook page. It shows Trump Jr. urging his father’s supporters to “fight” and saying they’re “sick of the bullsh*t” while music plays in the background.
The evidence indicates that Trump Jr.’s video was recorded before the president’s speech to the “Save America” rally on Wednesday and thus well before the riot at the Capitol.
The Trumps are clearly shown in a tent watching live footage of the crowd around the stage where Trump Jr. and the president delivered their remarks.

6 January

The complete fact-based account of today’s events
Trump to Mob: “We love you, you’re very special.”
By Heather Cox Richardson
Six senators and more than half of the House Republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government, in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying the election results.
Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

‘Senate Being Locked Down’: Inside a Harrowing Day at the Capitol
Three New York Times journalists were at the Capitol when it was breached. Here’s how they experienced it.

US Capitol secured, 4 dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden’s win
(CNN) The US Capitol is once again secured but four people are dead — including one woman who was shot — after supporters of President Donald Trump breached one of the most iconic American buildings, engulfing the nation’s capital in chaos after Trump urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes that will confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
Shortly after 1 p.m. ET Wednesday hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, where they tussled with officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers “traitors” for doing their jobs. About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked. Shortly after, the House floor was evacuated by police. Vice President Mike Pence was also evacuated from the chamber, where he was to perform his role in the counting of electoral votes.