The Jan. 6 Committee is meeting 1 more time — here’s what you need to know
The bipartisan Select Committee of Congress to Investigate Jan. 6 Attack on United States Capitol will hold its final public meeting on MondayBringing an end to the story nearly a year-and-a-half of investigations Into the attempt of former President Donald Trump to foment an insurrection to reverse Trump’s 2020 electoral loss. The Committee’s seven Democratic members and two Republican members presented a convincing narrative that pointed to Trump as the centre of a massive, coordinated effort to disrupt Congress’ normal business for his own advantage since it was established in the summer 2021. A series of public hearings And witness testimonialsYou can also access it through a trail of court filing tea leaves rife for interpretation and extrapolation, the committee’s work has arguably become the definitive accounting of the events of Jan. 6 for many, even as the former president and his network of allies work to counteract and dismiss the groups’ findings.
This final hearing — dubbed a “business meeting” by the committee — will be followed by a full, official report on Wednesday, the contents of which will be voted on for approval during the Monday session. According to co-chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.(D-Miss. congressional website. Here are the essential facts:
How did we get to this point?
From the start, the Jan. 6 Committee’s mere existence has been a contentious issue in Congress, where Trump’s hold over the GOP has reigned — and remained — supreme in the months and years since the insurrection itself. The Jan. 6 Committee was created as a result. largely Party-line vote in House. The committee’s only Republican participants, Reps. Adam Kinzinger, (R.Ill.), and Liz Cheney, (R.Wy.), were the party-line votes. were ultimately censured They were not allowed to be a part the proceedings by their party. Still, despite the broader conservative rancor over the committee’s mere existence, Cheney and Kinzinger’s presence afforded the investigation a sense of patriotic unity — one that was repeatedly invoked The committee’s public hearings were part of a wider effort to elevate the proceedings beyond jejune partisanship.
The committee examined a variety of aspects and antecedents of the Jan. 6 Insurrection. These included: Trump’s efforts to ally himself with others. knowingly spread false allegations About the 2020 election; A campaign to push the Justice Department to support his election lies; and, in perhaps most dramatic session, descriptions of the former president’s private behavior As the attack on Capitol was underway.
A series of legal maneuvers were also used by the committee to force testimony from unwilling potential witnesses. The committee even recommended Steve Bannon as a possible witness. held in contempt of Congress For refusing to subpoena the group. Bannon was later found guilty. Recently, the committee voted subpoena Trump himselfIt is capable of eliciting more than just 100-page response from the former president, The committee opened with a repeat of the falsified claim that “the 2020 presidential election was rigged, stolen!” Trump has not yet testified before the investigators of the committee.
What has been happening in the meantime that the committee met?
It is quite a lot. Apart from the congressional investigation into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 attacks, the former president also faced several other, unrelated legal issues over the past year: FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago compound in August was perhaps the most visible example of Trump’s ongoing legal peril, serving as both the culmination of — and kickstarting a renewed focus on — his fight with the government over the ownership and storage of classified material. The Justice Department is also carrying out its own parallel investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrectionBoth cases will be monitored by recently appointed Jack Smith, Special Counsel
Trump has been more exposed to legal consequences than the Jan. 6 committee. His business empire has also been affected. An earlier month, the Trump Organization, the ex-president’s organization was in bankruptcy. found guilty in New York of tax fraud and numerous other financial crimes — a sign that the various state and local level investigations into Trump and his network may ultimately be just as consequential as those that take place at the federal level.
Trump’s soft-power position within the GOP has been greatly diminished over the course of the investigation. The former president retains an apparent unbreakable grip over the party’s core MAGA-base base. However, Trump’s poor performance in the midterm elections last month, combined with the fact that Trump-backed candidates performed poorly, has led to his own stagnating re-election campaignThis has renewed the possibility that the GOP in its entirety may be prepared to move on from Trump — even as it continues to hunger for Trumpism.
What can we expect for Monday?
While the exact agenda for Monday’s final Jan. 6 commission meeting remains a secret, co-chair Thompson has stated that there will be criminal referrals made as part of the committee’s effort to conclude their investigation — an admission that later prompted an official statement from the group, saying “the committee has determined that referrals to outside entities should be considered as a final part of its work.” It remains to be seen if those considerations, as Thompson predicted would result in actual referrals. Thompson answered simply that Trump is being considered for a criminal referral when asked by a reporter if he was under consideration.good try.”) Thompson claims that there are five or six different categories of referrals The committee is currently preparing to investigate, including criminal prosecutions as well as less serious cases of campaign finance fraud and House Ethics complaints.
Thompson could also make available new material during the hearing, which would be possible. telling Axios It could be evidence we haven’t shared at the hearings. It could be.
Even if there is new evidence, Monday’s hearing should be viewed as a culmination to the committee’s prior work. It was designed to set the scene for the official release of their full report two days later.
From there, where do we go?
The fate of the Jan.6 committee and its legacy are still unknown. With a new Republican majority House, it appears that it will happen. fairly clear that the group itself will be disbanded, and perhaps even subjected to partisan attacks, with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) threatening This June, we decided that one of our first priorities would be to launch an investigation into Speaker Nancy Pelosi (and the Select Committee’s circus).
The DOJ and other adjudicating authorities would have to refer the criminal referrals made by the commitee to them. While some — like Garland’s Justice Department — seem at least open to pursuing criminal prosecution of former President Trump For him and his associates it is hard to imagine House Ethics committee complaints being heard by a GOP majority that is accepting, and even increasing accepting, of such complaints. embracedJan. 6:
Therefore, the committee’s legacy may be more about influencing national narratives than concrete consequences. Quinta Jurecic is a Bookings Institution fellow, Lawfareblog.com editor, and she doesn’t believe we should judge the Jan.6 committee’s success by whether it makes people think differently. told The Hill recently.
Jurecic said, “That was simply an impossible number.” “I think it’s been extremely successful, even if success is defined in another way. It has been able to uncover new facts about Jan. I think it has shown us evidence that Trump was far more personally and closely involved with efforts to contest and overturn the election and then with the violence on Jan. 6 than we knew — just a degree of personal involvement that simply wasn’t in the public record before the committee carried out this work. This is huge.”
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