The congressional panel probing the Jan 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol released its final report late on Thursday, outlining its case that former US president Donald Trump should face criminal charges of inciting the deadly riot.
\nThe House of Representatives Select Committee also made public the transcripts of a number of its interviews and witness testimonies earlier on Thursday and on Wednesday.
\nThe report, which runs to more than 800 pages, is based on nearly 1,200 interviews over 18 months and hundreds of thousands of documents, as well as the rulings of more than 60 federal and state courts.
\nThe report lists 17 specific findings, discusses the legal implications of actions by Trump and some of his associates, and includes criminal referrals to the Justice Department of Trump and other individuals, according to an executive summary released earlier this week.
\nIt also lists legislative recommendations to help avert another such attack.
\nOn Monday, the committee asked federal prosecutors to charge the Republican former president with four crimes \u2014 including obstruction and insurrection \u2014 for what they said were efforts to overturn the results of the November 2020 election and sparking the attack on the seat of government.
\n\u201cRather than honour his constitutional obligation to \u2018take care that the laws be faithfully executed\u2019, President Trump instead plotted to overturn the election outcome,\u201d the House panel had said earlier in a 160-page summary of its report.
\nIn comments posted on his Truth Social network after the final report\u2019s release, Trump called it \u201chighly partisan\u201d and a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d. He said it failed to \u201cstudy the reason for the (Jan 6) protest, election fraud\u201d.
\nThe request by the Democratic-led panel to the Justice Department does not compel federal prosecutors to act but marked the first time in history that Congress had referred a former president for criminal prosecution.
\nTrump announced in November that he would run for president again.
\nAmong the transcripts released on Wednesday and Thursday was one that showed a former lawyer for ex-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson told her to \u201cdownplay\u201d her knowledge of events leading to the Capitol riot, telling her \u201cthe less you remember, the better.\u201d
\nAttorney Stefan Passantino advised Hutchinson in preparing for a February deposition before the panel to say that she could not recall certain events, she told the committee in September, according to the transcript of her testimony.
\nTrump gave a fiery speech to his supporters near the White House the morning of Jan 6 and publicly chastised his vice president, Mike Pence, for not going along with his plan to reject ballots cast for Democrat Joe Biden.
\nThe former president then waited hours to make a public statement as thousands of his supporters raged through the Capitol, assaulting police and threatening to hang Pence.
\nThe 2020 election results were being certified by Pence and lawmakers when the Capitol was attacked after weeks of false claims by Trump that he had won that election.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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