Part 6

Part 6: The Next Phase
January 7, 2021—and Beyond

January 7, 2021

3:40 a.m. The election of Joe Biden is certified.

3:49 a.m. Nine minutes after the final certification of Joe Biden for president, Dan Scavino tweets an official statement from Donald Trump: “Even though I totally disagree with the outcome of the election, and the facts bear me out, nevertheless there will be an orderly transition on January 20th. I have always said we would continue our fight to ensure that only legal votes were counted. While this represents the end of the greatest first term in presidential history, it’s only the beginning of our fight to Make America Great Again!” (Advisor Jason Miller later testified that he personally wrote the statement, and that he called Donald Trump to convince him to send it.)

Roger Stone tells Steve Malzberg, of Russia Today: “I was invited to lead a march to the Capitol. I declined.” Stone does not say who made the invitation.

Alex Jones

Using the Capitol Building as a backdrop, Alex Jones tells InfoWars he paid $500,000 to book the Ellipse for Trump’s rally: “Then, the White House told me three days before, ‘We’re going to have you lead the march. The Secret Service, before he finishes, thirty minutes before, will lead you to a point, take you to the front row, and lead you to the place where they want you to start the march, and Trump will tell people, go, I’m going to meet you at the Capitol.’”

Terminally-ill Rush Limbaugh, dying of cancer, tells his radio audience that “hundreds of thousands” of Americans “tired of being ignored and lied about and smeared as racists” were “fed up with having elections stolen from them by the Democrats” and went to Washington. He presumes that because it is out of character for Republicans to join mobs and riot, the trouble must have been caused by “antifa, Democrat-sponsored instigators.”

Rush Limbaugh

7:10 p.m. Donald Trump tweets a video saying he is “outraged by the violence, lawlessness, and mayhem.” He claims to have “immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders.” Trump acknowledges “Congress has certified the results,” but he declines to say the election is “over.”

7:37 p.m. Sean Hannity texts bulleted items to Kayleigh McEnany, directed to the president: “1- No more stolen election talk. 2- Yes, impeachment and 25 th amendment are real, and many people will quit. 3- He was intrigued by the Pardon idea!! (Hunter) 4- Resistant but listened to Pence thoughts, to make it right. 5- Seemed to like attending Inauguration talk.” McEnany replies: “Love that. Thank you. That is the playbook. I will help reinforce. THANK YOU for your help. You are doing a great service for your country!” (The reference to “Hunter” was reportedly Joe Biden’s son.)

8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Alex Jones and Owen Shroyer report to InfoWars somewhere near Capitol Hill. A caller says Antifa was activated to start the riot to disrupt Joe Biden’s certification. He asserts everything was scripted, even the speeches of Senators after the riot. He recommends that Trump issue an executive order to activate the military to “arrest all of the traitors” and stay in power. Jones—who frequently warns his followers of martial law--agrees with the caller and says, “God bless you. Here’s the deal. We’re under Chi-Com takeover anyways. I don’t like any of this happening, but I agree. Trump has that power.” Jones interviews Michael Flynn. Flynn tells the audience, “Donald Trump will continue to be the president of the United States for the next four years. There’s no doubt in my mind.”

Later on, Alex Jones says he “paid for the d*** march.” He says, with ominous sirens blaring in the background, “The United States is in a civil war. We’ve been in a civil war for years. Multinational corporations allied with the Chinese are attempting the takeover of the United States. And yesterday, I would estimate over a million people showed up in Washington, D.C., total. Three hundred to four hundred thousand total ended up marching to the Capitol, and things got out of hand” because of “understaffed police.” He blames Antifa, “posing as patriots, screaming ‘f Antifa.’”

9:30 p.m. Officer Brian Sicknick dies. The Capitol Police department issues a press release that Officer Sicknick passed away, “due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” (The medical examiner later determined that Officer Sicknick died of “natural causes,” from “acute basilar artery thrombosis,” yet he found that “all that transpired [with the rioters] played a role in his condition.”)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi orders the Capitol flag lowered to half mast, in honor of fallen Officer Brian Sicknick. Trump is criticized for refusing to lower the flag at the White House.

January 8, 2021

At 9:46 a.m., Donald Trump tweets: “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!” (Trump originally claimed he received 71 million votes.)

At 10:44 a.m., Donald Trump makes his final tweet before being suspended by Twitter: “To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th.”

January 10, 2021

After criticism, Trump orders flags at the White House and federal buildings lowered to half-mast for Officer Brian Sicknick. A presidential proclamation acknowledges Sicknick and Howard Liebengood. Trump reportedly makes no effort to call Officer Sicknick’s widow, unlike Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi.

January 11, 2021

House members Rep. Jamie Raskin, David Cicilline, and Ted Lieu introduce one article of impeachment against Donald Trump: Incitement of Insurrection

Rep. Kevin McCarthy is recorded saying, “Let me be very clear to all of you, and I’ve been very clear to the president, he bears responsibility for his words and actions, no ifs, ands or buts. I asked him personally today, does he hold responsibility for what happened? Does he feel bad about what happened? He told me he does have some responsibility for what happened.”

January 13, 2021

An affidavit filed by a witness against Dominic Pezzola states the Proud Boys intended on January 6th to kill Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, and they plan to return to the Capitol on Inauguration Day, to “kill every single ‘m-fer’ they can.”

From home, Roger Stone complains to documentarian Christoffer Guldbrand (“A Storm Foretold”) that Donald Trump should have done more to hold on to power, starting with using the U.S. military against Americans the previous summer. “I wouldn’t give him any advice. He had all the time and all the power in the world to solve his problems, and he chose not to. There’s plenty of things he could have done months ago. He should have started by enacting the insurrection act when Portland and Kenosha were burning last summer. That was the test.”

Roger Stone: Trump should have done more to hold on to power

January 17, 2021

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) texts Mark Meadows: “Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of no return in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall [sic] Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene echoes the sentiment in her own text to Meadows: “In our private chat with only Members, several are saying the only way to save our Republic is for Trump to call for Marshall [sic] law. I don’t know on those things. I just wanted you to tell him. They stole this election. We all know. They will destroy our country next. Please tell him to declassify as much as possible so we can go after Biden and anyone else!”

January 19, 2021

In one of his last actions as president, Trump pardons Steve Bannon for wire fraud and money laundering. Trump issues no pardon to Bannon’s three co-defendants.

Trump also pardons his advisor Paul Erickson, who was arrested but not charged in the Russia investigation. The pardon excuses Erickson’s seven-year sentence for wire fraud and money laundering in unrelated matters. Erickson had worked with convicted Russian spy Maria Butina, who was caught infiltrating the NRA. During Trump’s campaign, Erickson wrote an email to Trump advisor Rick Dearborn and Sen. Jeff Sessions to arrange a meeting with Trump and Vladamir Putin at the NRA. The subject of the email was “Kremlin Connection.” Of the pardon, Trump wrote that it would “help right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.”

January 20, 2021

Joseph Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States. The inauguration takes place at the platform besieged by Trump rioters two weeks prior. Donald Trump does not attend the inauguration.

At 12:00 p.m., Trump is no longer president. As he leaves the White House, he allegedly takes boxes of materials to store at Mar-a-Lago. According to the government, some of these materials are classified defense secrets that Trump had no right to possess. (See the June 8, 2023, indictment.)

January 26, 2021

Capitol rioter John Sullivan tells InfoWars that it’s “totally false” he is with Antifa or Black Lives Matter. “Not true,” he says. Sullivan describes himself as politically neutral: “I personally did not support Trump. I did not support Biden either.” He says he sympathizes with stolen election claims: “I don’t have anything against people who are Trump supporters. . . . I don’t trust U.S. elections. I don’t think my vote counts, if that makes sense. I’ve always said that, and people who know me know that I believe if I were to vote, let’s say, for Trump, I believe—” Sullivan gets interrupted by InfoWars interviewer for a break, then says, “I don’t think my vote counts. That being said, I don’t pick the right or the left party to believe in. I’m very neutral.” Sullivan says he heard Biden has Alzheimer’s, and he doubts Biden had much support: “You don’t see Biden rallies with Biden 2020 flags popping up all over the U.S. You see a lot of Trump rallies, and Trump 2020 rallies, so that does speak for itself. . . . What I’m saying is, I think there is definitely something that is kinda fishy, to say that Biden got all of these votes, when Trump had all of these people out there protesting.” Asked whether he thought there was “some kind of miscount and rigging,” he says, “Yeah, I do.”

InfoWars host Owen Shroyer and John Sullivan were both convicted for Jan. 6

Sullivan continues: “You think that ‘the right’ is the only one that’s been coming after me strong? No, no, no. I’ve been getting doxxed by Antifa for so many months. Like, they had all of my accounts on their underground channels, my emails, my phone numbers, my address, my license plate, all of my social media accounts they put on this group that had like a half million people following it. If you think I’m being targeted by just one group, no. I’m getting it from both sides. . . . People were calling me Marxist. And I was like, I didn’t even know what Marxism was until I just read a book, like, two months ago on exactly what that entails.” About January 6th, he says, “I am definitely not responsible for anything that took place that day. I can tell you that the people that are responsible, they’re not even caught.” He says he is being blamed only because he is visible. “Nobody knows what is going on, and they just want to place the blame on what’s easiest to see, who is the most visible.” InfoWars interviewer Owen Shroyer says he was at the front row of Trump’s speech. Shroyer says “a million Trump supporters” barged into the Capitol, and that they were capable of inciting others around them. (Months after this interview, both Shroyer and Sullivan were convicted of participating in the January 6th riot. Prior to that day, Shroyer was the MC for the December 12, 2020, “Stop the Steal” event in D.C. attended by Proud Boys and Roger Stone.)

February 3, 2021

The body of fallen officer Brian Sicknick lies in honor at the Capitol Rotunda. Donald Trump does not attend.

February 9, 2021 — Impeachment Trial (Day 1)

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin opens the Senate impeachment trial by saying Trump’s lawyers “want to call the trial over, before any evidence is even introduced. Their argument is that if you commit an impeachable offense in your last few weeks of office, you do it with constitutional impunity. You get away with it. In other words, conduct that would be a high crime and misdemeanor in your first year as president, in your second year as president, in your third year as president, and for the vast majority of your fourth year as president, you can suddenly do in your last few weeks in office without facing any constitutional accountability at all. This would create a brand-new ‘January exception’ to the Constitution of the United States of America. . . . The ‘January exception’ is an invitation to our Founders’ worst nightmare. And if we buy this radical argument that President Trump’s lawyers advance, we risk allowing January 6th to become our future.”

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Jamie Raskin, Day 1

Rep. Raskin defends the Senate’s power to try impeachments, even after a federal official leaves office, as was done in Great Britain and in the states. He quotes Alexander Hamilton in Federalist #65, which says impeachment was based on the British model. Under the British system, says Raskin, “every single impeachment of a governmental official that occurred during the Framers’ lifetime concerned a former official.” Raskin cites Hamilton’s warning in Federalist #1 of those who begin as demagogues and end as tyrants. Raskin says, “President Trump may not know a lot about the Framers. But they certainly knew a lot about him. Given the Framers’ intense focus on the danger to elections, and the peaceful transfer of power, it is inconceivable that they designed impeachment to be a dead letter.”

February 10, 2021 — Impeachment Trial (Day 2)

Day two of the Senate impeachment trial focuses on the evidence that Donald Trump incited and approved of the violence on January 6th. Rep. Jamie Raskin says that, contrary to the defense’s claim that Donald Trump was “an innocent bystander” on January 6th, “he incited this attack, and he saw it coming.” “The evidence will show you that he saw it coming, and he was not remotely surprised by the violence,” says Raskin. “He completely abdicated his duty as commander-in-chief to stop the violence and protect our government, and protect our officers and protect our people. . . . The evidence will show you that he assembled, inflamed, and incited his followers to descend upon the Capitol to ‘stop the steal,’ to block Vice President Pence and Congress from finalizing his opponent’s election victory over him.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Day 2

Rep. Joe Neguse, Day 2

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Joe Neguse states that January 6th shows we can no longer take the peaceful transfer of power for granted. “When the violence erupted, when they were here in our building with weapons, [President Trump] did nothing to stop it. If we are to protect our republic and prevent something like this from ever happening again, he must be convicted. . . . This mob was well-orchestrated, their conduct was intentional, they did it all in plain sight, proudly, openly, and loudly, because they truly believed that they were doing this for him, that this was their patriotic duty. They even predicted that he would protect them. And for the most part, they were right. In his unique role as commander-in-chief of our country, and as the one person that the mob was listening to and following orders from, he had the power to stop it. And he didn’t.”

House Impeachment Manager Joaquin Castro lays out the “provocation” of Trump’s statements leading up the 2020 election. Castro notes that as Trump declined in the polls, “He refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power. . . . President Trump was given every opportunity to say, ‘Yes, if I lose, I will peacefully transfer power to the next president.’ Instead, he told his supporters the only way he could lose the election is if it was stolen. In tweet after tweet, he made sweeping allegations of election fraud that couldn’t possibly be true. But that was the point. He didn’t care if the claims were true. He wanted to make sure that his supporters were angry that the election was being ripped away from them. On May 24th, six months before the election, he tweeted, ‘It will be the greatest Rigged Election in history.’ How could he possibly know it will be the ‘greatest rigged election in history,’ six months before the election happened?”

Rep. Joaquin Castro, Day 2

Rep. Eric Swalwell, Day 2

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Eric Swalwell focuses on the continuation of Trump’s efforts to inflame his supporters. “He wanted to make his base angrier and angrier—and to make them angry, he was willing to say anything.” Swalwell says Trump made outlandish stolen claims “to trigger and anger his base so that they would ‘fight like he**’ to overturn an election.” Swalwell demonstrates that Trump supporters acted upon his rhetoric to intimidate election officials, yet Trump did nothing: “He could have very easily told his supporters, ‘Stop threatening officials. Stop going to their homes. Stop it with the threats. But each time, he didn’t. Instead, in the face of escalating violence, he incited them further.” Swalwell says, “What President Trump did was the polar opposite of what any of us would do if we lost an election.” Instead of paving the way for a peaceful transition of power, President Trump “directed all of the rage that he had incited to January 6th.”

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Madeleine Dean presents “the actions of a desperate president” to retain power by ignoring court rulings, pressuring election officials, and vilifying members of his own party. Evidence is provided of Trump’s election loss. Dean: “Let’s be clear. Donald Trump was calling officials, hosting them at the White House, urging them to defy the voters in their state and instead award votes to Trump. The officials held strong.” She presents evidence of Trump’s pressure and attacks against officials in states that went to Biden. Rep. Dean: “And the attacks had consequences. Mr. Raffensperger and his family received death threats.” Instead of condemning the widely-publicized attacks, Trump “doubled down” and called Raffensperger “an enemy of the people.”

Rep. Madeleine Dean, Day 2

Rep. Ted Lieu, Day 2

House Impeachment Manager Rep. Ted Lieu says, “I’ll tell you how we got here. President Donald J. Trump ran out of non-violent options to retain power.” He highlights Trump's browbeating of Republican office-holders, attempts to pressure the Justice Department, and intimidation tactics against Mike Pence. Rep. Lieu notes that Trump told Republican Senators to “get tougher,” and join his fight against the election results, “or you won’t have a Republican Party anymore.” Lieu says Trump pressured Bill Barr and Jeffery Rosen, to no avail: “President Trump’s actions, time and time again, made clear that he would do anything and pressure anyone if it meant overturning the election results.” “Finally, in his own desperation, he turned on his own vice president,” says Lieu. “Publicly, President Trump attacked Pence on social media and at rallies, getting his supporters to believe that Mike Pence could stop the certification on January 6th.”

House Impeachment Manager Del. Stacey Plaskett praises the patriotism of Mike Pence and introduces footage of the Capitol attack. She says patriotic Americans on 9/11 who sacrificed their lives, rather than allow Flight 93 to possibly hit the Capitol building, are a contrast to the “insurgents incited by our own president of the United States, attacking this Capitol to stop the certification of a presidential election.” Plaskett plays footage of rioters breaking in and asking where votes are counted, and she says, “They were coming at the urging of Donald Trump, to keep Congress—a separate branch of government—from certifying the results of a presidential election.” She notes they were not far from Pence and “just feet away from one of the doors” to the Senate chamber, “where many of you [Senators] remained at that time.” She says there were calls throughout the crowd to “bring out” or “hang” Mike Pence, and reporters overheard talk of rioters “looking for Pence in order to execute him”—all because he rejected Trump’s demands.

Del. Stacey Plaskett, Day 2

February 12, 2021 — Impeachment Trial (Day 4)

At the impeachment trial, Donald Trump’s attorneys blame Democrats for inciting violence, and insinuate Antifa planned the January 6th attack: “According to publicly available reporting, it is apparent that extremists of various different stripes and political persuasions pre-planned and premeditated an attack on the Capitol. One of the first people arrested was a leader of Antifa.”

February 13, 2021 — Impeachment Trial (Day 5)

The Senate acquits Donald Trump, by a vote of 57 "guilty" and 43 "not guilty," falling short of the 2/3rds needed to convict.

After the impeachment trial, Sen. Mitch McConnell delivers a speech on the Senate floor: “January 6th was a disgrace. American citizens attacked their own government. They used terrorism to try to stop a specific piece of domestic business they did not like. Our fellow Americans beat and bloodied our own police. They stormed the Senate floor. They tried to hunt down the Speaker of the House. They built a gallows and chanted about murdering the vice president. They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on earth. . . . There is no question, none, that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. And having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories, and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet earth.”

Despite voting against conviction, McConnell says, “A mob was assaulting the Capitol in his name. These criminals were carrying his banners, hanging his flags, and screaming their loyalty to him. It was obvious that only President Trump could end this. He was the only one who could. Former aides publicly begged him to do so. Loyal allies frantically called the administration. The president did not act swiftly. He did not do his job. He did not take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored. No. Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily—happily!—as the chaos unfolded. He kept pressing his scheme to overturn the election.” McConnell voted against conviction on a technicality.

President Trump and Carl Paladino, unknown date

Carl Paladino, the Trump campaign representative who threatened Republican delegates in 2016, goes on the r-House Radio Show: “Somebody had mentioned on the radio Adolf Hitler and how he aroused the crowds. And he would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just—they were hypnotized by him. That’s, I guess, I guess that’s the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer, has been there and done it, so that it’s not a strange new world to him. . . . I can't get comfortable with the RINO-ism. And on a state level, our Republicans are sound asleep. They’re not an anti-government group.”

February 28, 2021 - CPAC

In his first public speaking event since he sent a crowd to the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, and weeks after his second impeachment trial, Donald Trump tells an enthusiastic crowd at CPAC: “We’ve just started.” He slams Joe Biden for closing schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic: “Millions of American children are having their futures destroyed by Joe Biden’s anti-science school closures.” Trump says Biden “is cruelly keeping our children locked in their homes, no reason for it whatsoever.” Trump says keeping children at home away from school is “cheating the next generations of Americans out of the future that they deserve. And they do deserve this future. They’re going to grow up and they’re going to have a scar.”

Trump at CPAC after Jan. 6

Trump then cools the crowd by pushing his vaccine, which he calls a “miracle”: “The FDA said it, everybody said it. Any article you read said it couldn’t be done. It would be years and years, I handed the new administration what everyone is now calling a modern day medical miracle. Some say, it’s the greatest thing to happen in hundreds of years, two vaccines produced in record time with numerous others on the way, including the Johnson and Johnson vaccine that was approved just yesterday.”

Trump confirms reports of his pressure campaign: “I pushed the FDA like they have never been pushed before. They told me that loud and clear. They have never been pushed like I pushed them. I didn’t like them at all, but once we got it done, I said, I now love you very much. What the Trump administration has done with vaccines has in many respects, perhaps saved large portions of the world. Not only our country, but large portions of the world. . . . Not only did we push the FDA far beyond what the bureaucrats wanted to do, we also put up billions and billions of dollars, $10 billion, to produce the vaccines before we knew they were going to work. It was called a calculated bet or a calculated risk. We took a risk because if we didn’t do that, you still wouldn’t have the vaccines. You wouldn’t have them for a long time. So think of that, we took this bet. We made a bet because we thought we were on a certain track, but you’d be starting to make them right now. It’d be a long time before you ever saw. It takes 60 to 100 days to manufacture and inspect new doses. And that means that 100% of the increased availability that we have now was initiated by our administration—100%. In fact, the director of National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins—he’s Fauci’s boss, actually; I think he’s a Democrat too, by the way—recently said that our Operation Warp Speed was absolutely breathtaking, and that the Trump administration deserves full credit, which we do. And as conservatives and Republicans, never forget that we did it. Never let them take the credit because they don’t deserve the credit.”

A gold-like statue of Trump is rolled into CPAC 2021, Orlando

March 15, 2021

At Mar-a-Lago, boxes taken from the White House are moved from the ballroom stage to another room.

Ballroom stage at Mar-a-Lago

April 2021

Mar-a-Lago employees move boxes into a small bathroom, and place some inside the shower and near a toilet.

May 2021

Donald Trump directs Mar-a-Lago employees to move boxes to a storage room and to his residence in New Jersey.

April 29, 2021

Donald Trump tells Fox Business: “In a certain way, I am the father of the vaccine, because I was the one that pushed it. You know, to get it done in less than nine months was a miracle. Fauci said it would take three to five years.” He continues, “I pushed the FDA like they have never been pushed before. I wouldn’t exactly say they are in love with me. This is a very bureaucratic organization. I pushed them like they’ve never been pushed before, and that’s why we have” the vaccine. Trump condemns vaccine hesitancy and says it’s “very, very stupid” that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was paused.

May 6, 2021

The National Archives contacts Donald Trump about missing White House records, and asks that he returns any classified documents in his possession.

June 2021

The National Archives again asks Donald Trump for the records, and warns the Justice Department may have to get involved.

June 17, 2021

Donald Trump admits to Sean Hannity he lost: “We were supposed to win easily at 64 million votes, and we got 75 million votes, and we didn’t win.”

June 24, 2021

Mar-a-Lago employees have now moved over eighty White House boxes to the storage area on site.

July 21, 2021

At his summer home in New Jersey, Donald Trump is recorded speaking of a military “plan of attack” as he shows an interviewer a document. Trump confesses it remains “highly confidential” and was never declassified: “As president, I could have declassified it. . . . Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

July 27, 2021 - Preliminary Jan 6 hearing

Law enforcement give sworn testimony before Congress of their experience defending the Capitol from attackers on January 6th.

Decorated Iraq War veteran and Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell testifies: “On January 6, for the first time, I was more afraid to work at the Capitol than my entire deployment to Iraq. . . . The rioters called me a ‘traitor,’ a ‘disgrace,’ and shouted that I (an Army veteran and police officer) should be ‘executed.’ Some of the rioters had the audacity to tell me that it was ‘nothing personal,’ that they would ‘go through’ us to achieve their goals as they were breaking metal barriers to use as weapons against us. Others used more menacing language: ‘If you shoot us, we all have weapons, and we will shoot back,’ or ‘we will get our guns.’ ‘We outnumber you, join us,’ they said. I also heard specific threats on the lives of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and then-Vice President Mike Pence. But the physical violence we experienced was horrific and devastating. My fellow officers and I were punched, pushed, kicked, shoved, sprayed with chemical irritants, and even blinded with eye-damaging lasers by a violent mob who apparently saw us law enforcement officers, dedicated to ironically protecting them as U.S. citizens, as an impediment in their attempted insurrection. The mob brought weapons to try to accomplish their insurrectionist objectives, and they used them against us. These weapons included hammers, rebars, knives, batons and police shields taken by force, as well as, bear spray and pepper spray. Some rioters wore tactical gear, including bulletproof vests and gas masks. The rioters also forcibly took our batons and shields and used them against us. I was particularly shocked at seeing the insurrectionists violently attack us with the very American flag they claimed they sought to protect. Based on the coordinated tactics we observed and verbal commands we heard, it appeared that many of the attackers had law enforcement or military experience. The rioters were vicious and relentless. We found ourselves in a violent battle in a desperate attempt to prevent a breach of the Capitol by the entrance near the Inauguration Stage. . . . What we were subjected to that day was like something from a medieval battle. We fought hand-to-hand, inch by inch to prevent an invasion of the Capitol by a violent mob intent on subverting our democratic process. My fellow officers and I were committed to not letting any rioters breach the Capitol. It was a prolonged and desperate struggle. The rioters attempting to breach the Capitol were shouting, ‘Trump sent us. Pick the right side. We want Trump.’ I vividly heard officers screaming in agony, in pain, just an arm’s length from me. I didn’t know at that time, but that was Officer Hodges, and he’s here today to testify. I too was being crushed by the rioters. I could feel myself losing oxygen and recall thinking to myself, ‘This is how I’m going to die, defending this entrance.’”

MPD officer Daniel Hodges, who was crushed in a door while trying to secure the west tunnel entrance, testifies: “My particular station was in front of 1111 Constitution Avenue, where I stood on foot as the crowd poured down the street and into the park. There were a significant number of men dressed in tactical gear attending the gathering. Wearing ballistic vests, helmets, goggles, military face masks, backpacks, and without identifiable, visible law enforcement or military patches, they appeared to be prepared for much more than listening to politicians speak in a park. Two of my colleagues were approached by a group of 3 to 4 of such men. The men were white, in good shape, with load-bearing vests equipped with MOLLE pouches. They were wearing BDUs, or battle dress uniform pants, tactical boots, black sunglasses and short haircuts. They had radios and one was equipped with an earpiece. After a bit of small talk one of them asked my colleagues something to the effect of, ‘Is this all the manpower you have? Do you really think you’re going to be able to stop all these people?’ Dumbfounded, my colleagues simply expressed that they didn’t understand what the speaker meant, and the group continued on. . . . As the day went on and the speakers in the park said their piece, I monitored the crowd and the radio. Over the radio I heard our Gun Recovery Unit working constantly, monitoring those in the crowd suspected of carrying firearms and making arrests and seizures when possible. Multiple gun arrests were made from January 5th through the 7th against those attending, planning to attend, or had attended Donald Trump’s gathering. . . .

"I don’t know what time it was, but eventually the flow of foot traffic reversed, with people leaving President's Park and traveling eastbound down Constitution Avenue toward the United States Capitol. . . . Returning to my post I continued monitoring the radio. I could hear Commander Glover leading the defense efforts at the Capitol as the protesters began their transition from peaceful assembly into terrorism. . . . I became agitated and wished we could move in to support as I could hear the increasing desperation in the Commander’s voice, yet we still had to wait for our orders to change. Eventually they did, as at approximately 1:30 p.m. the Commander authorized rapid response platoons to deploy their hard gear and respond to the Capitol, including CDU 42. The last thing I remember hearing over the air before departing for the Capitol grounds was confirmation that our Explosive Ordinance Disposal team had discovered a ‘device.’ Given which unit was being associated with this ‘device’ I immediately realized MPD had discovered a bomb of some type near the Capitol. This thought was never far from my mind for the rest of the day. . . .

“A man attempted to rip my baton from my hands and we wrestled for control. I retained my weapon and after I pushed him back, he yelled at me ‘You’re on the wrong team!’ Cut off from our leadership at the front of our formation we huddled up and assessed the threat surrounding us. One man tried and failed to build a rapport with me, shouting, ‘Are you my brother?!’ Another takes a different tack, shouting ‘You will die on your knees!’ . . . Around this time one of the terrorists who had scaled the scaffolding that adorned the Capitol at the time threw something heavy down at me and struck me in the head, disorienting me (I suspect this resulted in the likely concussion I dealt with in the weeks after). Another man attempted to disarm me of my baton again, and we wrestled for control. He kicked me in my chest as we went to the ground. I was able to retain my baton again, but I ended up on my hands and knees and blind; the medical mask I was wearing to protect myself from the coronavirus was pulled up over my eyes so I couldn’t see. I braced myself against the impact of their blows and feared the worst. . . . I lead the charge again through the midst of crowd-control munitions, explosions, and smoke engulfing the area. Terrorists were breaking apart metal fencing and bike racks into individual pieces, presumably to use as weapons. I realized that back during the previous assault someone had stolen my radio; from that point on I was in the dark as to our current status and when reinforcements would arrive. Terrorists were scaling the scaffolding on both our sides, the tower that was in front of us, and attempting to breach the waist-high metal fencing that was the only barrier we had, aside from ourselves. The sea of people was punctuated throughout by flags. Lots of American flags and Trump flags. Gadsden flags. It was clear the terrorists perceived themselves to be Christians: I saw the Christian flag directly to my front. Another read ‘Jesus is my Savior, Trump is my President.’ Another, ‘Jesus is King.’ One flag read, ‘Don’t give up the ship.’ Another had crossed rifles beneath a skull emblazoned with the pattern of the American flag. To my perpetual confusion, I saw the Thin Blue Line flag, a symbol of support for law enforcement, more than once being carried by the terrorists as they ignored our commands and continued to assault us.”

MPD Officer Michael Fanone testifies of being dragged out of the Capitol tunnel and assaulted: “At some point during the fighting, I was dragged from the line of officers into the crowd. I heard someone scream, ‘I got one!’ as I was swarmed by a violent mob. They ripped off my badge. They grabbed my radio. They seized the ammunition that was secured to my body. They began to beat me, with their fists and with what felt like hard metal objects. At one point I came face to face with an attacker who repeatedly lunged for me and attempted to remove my firearm. I heard chanting from some in the crowd, ‘get his gun’ and ‘kill him with his own gun.’ I was aware enough to recognize I was at risk of being stripped of, and killed with, my own firearm. I was electrocuted, again and again and again with a taser. . . .

“During those moments, I felt there was a very good chance I would be torn apart or shot to death with my own weapon. I thought of my four daughters, who might lose their dad. I remain grateful that no member of Congress had to go through the violent assault that I experienced that day. . . . I had been beaten unconscious and remained so for more than four minutes. . . . At the hospital, doctors told me that I suffered a heart attack, and I was later diagnosed with a concussion, traumatic brain injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. . . .

“What makes that struggle harder and more painful is to know so many of my fellow citizens, including so many of the people I put my life at risk to defend, are downplaying or outright denying what happened. I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room, but too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful!”

Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn testifies: “I reported for duty at the Capitol as usual early on the morning of January 6th. We understood that the vote to certify President Biden’s election would be taking place that day and protests might occur outside the Capitol, but we expected any demonstrations to be peaceful expressions of First Amendment freedoms, just like the scores of demonstrations we had observed for many years. . . . As the morning progressed, I did not see or hear anything that gave me cause for alarm. But around 10:56 a.m., I received a text message from a friend forwarding a screen shot of what appeared to be the potential plan of action, very different from a peaceful demonstration. The screen shot bore the caption: ‘January 6th—Rally Point—Lincoln Park,’ and said the objective was ‘THE CAPITOL.’ It said, amongst other things, that ‘Trump has given us marching orders,’ and to ‘keep your guns hidden.’ It urged people ‘to bring . . . your trauma kits’ and ‘gas masks’ to ‘[l]ink up early in the day’ in ‘6-12 man teams.’ It indicated there would be ‘time to arm up.’ Seeing that message caused me concern. . . . At the time, though, we had not received any threat warnings from our chain of command. I had no independent reason to believe that violence was headed our way.”

Roughly two hours later, “I started receiving reports on the radio about large crowd movements around the Capitol coming from the direction of the Ellipse to both the West and East Fronts of the Capitol. Then I heard urgent radio calls for additional officers to respond to the west side and an exclamation, a desperate voice, that demonstrators on the west side had breached the fence. Now it was obvious that there was a direct threat to the Capitol. I quickly put on a steel chest plate, which weighs approximately 20 pounds, and carrying my M-4 rifle, sprinted around the north side of the Capitol to the West Terrace and the railing of the inaugural stage, where I had a broad view of what was going on. I was stunned by what I saw. What seemed like a sea of people, Capitol Police Officers and Metropolitan Police Officers, MPD, were engaged in desperate hand-to-hand fighting with rioters across the west lawn. . . .

“Until then, I had never seen anyone physically assault Capitol Police or MPD, let alone witness mass assaults being perpetrated on law enforcement officers. I witnessed the rioters using all kinds of weapons against officers, including flagpoles, metal bike racks that they had torn apart, and various kinds of projectiles. Officers were being bloodied in the fighting. Many were screaming, and many were blinded and coughing from chemical irritants being sprayed in their faces. I gave decontamination aid to as many officers as I could, flushing their eyes with water to dilute the chemical irritants. . . .

“After returning outside to the West Terrace to assist the officers, I went back into the Capitol and up the stairs toward the Crypt. There I saw rioters who had invaded the Capitol, carrying a Confederate flag, a red MAGA flag, and a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ flag. I decided to stand my ground there to prevent any rioters from heading down the stairs to the Lower West Terrace entrance, because that's where officers were getting decontamination aid and were particularly vulnerable. At the top of the stairs, I confronted a group of insurrectionists, warning them, do not go down those steps. One of them shouted, ‘Keep moving, patriots.’ Another displayed what looked like a law enforcement badge and told me, ‘We’re doing this for you.’ One of the invaders approached me like he was going to try to get past me and head down the stairs. I hit him, knocking him down. After getting relieved by other officers in the Crypt, I took off running upstairs toward the Speaker’s Lobby and helped the plainclothes officer who was getting hassled by insurrectionists. Some of them were dressed like members of a militia group, wearing tactical vests, cargo pants, and body armor. I was physically exhausted, and it was hard to breathe and to see because of all the chemical spray in the air. More and more insurrectionists were pouring into the area by the Speaker’s Lobby near the Rotunda, and some wearing MAGA hats and shirts that said, ‘Trump 2020.’ I told them to just leave the Capitol, and in response they yelled, ‘No, man, this is our house.’ ‘President Trump invited us here.’ ‘We’re here to stop the steal.’ ‘Joe Biden is not the President.’ ‘Nobody voted for Joe Biden.’ I’m a law enforcement officer, and I do my best to keep politics out of my job, but in this circumstance, I responded, ‘Well, I voted for Joe Biden. Does my vote not count? Am I nobody?’ That prompted a torrent of racial epithets. One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, ‘You hear that, guys? This ni***r voted for Joe Biden.’ Then the crowd, perhaps around twenty people, joined in screaming, ‘Boo, f*****g ni***r.’ No one had ever, ever called me a ni***r while wearing the uniform of a Capitol Police Officer.”

November 2021

Donald Trump directs his executive assistant, Walt Nauta, and another employee to bring him a few White House boxes from the Mar-a-Lago storage area for him to personally inspect.

December 7, 2021

Walt Nauta takes photos of several boxes that have toppled over and spilled contents marked “SECRET” with official sensitive material markings. Nauta sends the photos to a Mar-a-Lago employee with the text, “I opened the door and found this.” The employee replies, “Oh no oh no,” and says Trump just “had my phone.”

December 12, 2021

The Associated Press reports its monthslong and exhaustive hunt for potential cases of voter fraud produced “fewer than 475” total in the six battleground states. This number, states the AP, “would have made no difference in the 2020 election.” An unknown percentage of the suspicious ballots would have been for Trump.

February 22, 2022

Donald Trump calls Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine “wonderful” and “genius”: “I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine—of Ukraine—Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So Putin’s in now saying it’s ‘independent,’ a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s the strongest peace force. We could use that on our southern border.”

February 27, 2022

At the “Awake Not Woke” Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Donald Trump calls Putin “smart” and says NATO and U.S. leaders are “dumb”: “The problem is not that Putin is smart—which, of course he’s smart—but the real problem is that our leaders are dumb.”

Trump: Putin is "smart," American leaders are "dumb"

March 23, 2022

Rolling Stone Magazine reports that Roger Stone, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and other Trump advocates are supporting Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine. Stone is quoted referring to Russia as “the Soviet Union” (presumably by accident), and calling Ukraine the aggressor who has “biolabs that are funded by our tax dollars, cooking up who knows what pestilence to dump on the Russian people.” Stone further stated that “Putin is acting defensively. He’s not acting offensively. But you won’t read that in the mainstream media.” He said we should focus on America’s borders instead of Ukraine’s, because “millions of illegals” from Mexico are “bringing disease.”

Meanwhile, Fox News host Lara Logan is quoted saying Hunter Biden has “bioweapons labs” in Ukraine, and she’s quoted heaping praise on Putin for his attack: “He’s the man who is standing between us and this New World Order.”

March 30, 2022

The FBI opens a criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s handling of classified materials.

April 26, 2022

Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents is investigated by a federal grand jury.

May 11, 2022

The federal grand jury subpoenas Donald Trump to hand over every classified document in his possession.

May 22, 2022

Walt Nauta retrieves one box for Trump from the Mar-a-Lago storage room.

May 23, 2022

Donald Trump meets with two of his attorneys, and they encourage him to comply with the subpoena. One attorney writes down Trump’s words: “I don’t want anybody looking, I don’t want anybody looking through my boxes, I really don’t, I don’t want you looking through my boxes. . . . Well what if we, what happens if we just don’t respond at all or don’t play ball with them? . . . Wouldn’t it be better if we just told them we don’t have anything here? . . . Well look isn’t it better if there are no documents?” One attorney says he will come back on June 2nd to look for classified documents to comply with the subpoena. Trump agrees.

May 24, 2022

Walt Nauta moves three boxes out of the storage room from 5:30 p.m. to 5:38 p.m.

May 30, 2022

Walt Nauta returns to the storage room to remove about fifty boxes from 10:02 a.m. to 11:51 a.m. He talks to Trump beforehand by phone at 9:08 a.m. A member of the Trump family texts Nauta at 12:33 p.m.: “I saw you put boxes to Potus room. Just FYI and I will tell him as well: Not sure how many he wants to take on Friday on the plane. We will NOT have a room for them. Plane will be full with luggage.” Nauta replies: “I think he wanted to pick from them. I don’t imagine him wanting to take the boxes. He told me to put them in the room and that he was going to talk to you about them.”

June 1, 2022

Walt Nauta removes about eleven more boxes from the storage room of Mar-a-Lago.

June 2, 2022

Donald Trump talks to Walt Nauta by phone at 9:29 a.m. Three hours later, Nauta and another employee remove about thirty boxes from the storage room. They finish at 12:52 p.m.

Trump’s lawyer arrives to help Trump comply with the subpoena. He sees about thirty remaining boxes in the storage room. No one tells him about the sixty-four additional boxes secreted to another location. In the thirty boxes, the lawyer finds thirty-eight classified documents. Nauta helps the lawyer seal the documents in a folder with packing tape.

Later that evening, at dinner, Trump asks the lawyer if he can look through the thirty-eight documents, now inside the taped folder. The lawyer declines.

Trump’s attorney contacts the Department of Justice to have an FBI agent pick up the documents at Mar-a-Lago the next day.

June 3, 2022

A third attorney for Trump, who did not observe the contents of the now-sealed folder and was not involved in any search, arrives at Mar-a-Lago and signs a certificate attesting that “a diligent search was conducted” and “all responsive documents accompany this certification.” Only the thirty-eight documents are turned over to federal law enforcement.

June 9, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 1)

The first televised hearing of the January 6th Select Committee shows graphic footage of the riot. Clips are played of former Attorney General Bill Barr testifying that he advised the president that the 2020 election was not stolen, along with a clip of Ivanka Trump testifying that she accepted what Barr said about the election.

Full hearing:

New footage:

June 13, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 2)

The second congressional hearing investigating January 6th focuses on the fact the Trump campaign knew Trump had lost the election and there was no evidence to support massive election fraud claims.

June 16, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 3)

At the third congressional hearing investigating January 6th, conservative judge Michael Luttig testifies against the plan of his former law clerk, John Eastman. He says there is nothing in the history or law of the United States to support the idea of having the vice president count an alternative slate of electors in place of those that had been certified. Luttig calls it “a revolution within a constitutional crisis” for Vice President Mike Pence to have done anything but certify the election on January 6th.

June 21, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 4)

The fourth January 6th congressional hearing focuses on pressure Donald Trump placed on Republican officials to change the election results in their states, despite the lack of evidence of fraud. The hearing exonerates Georgia elections workers falsely accused by Rudy Giuliani and President Trump.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers testifies of direct pressure from Trump and Rudy Giuliani, to hold a special session to potentially decertify the election on unproven fraud claims.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger testifies of the infamous phone call in which Trump said, “I just want to find 11,780 votes,” and claimed he won by 400,000 votes. He says he was doxxed by Trump supporters.

Georgia elections official Gabriel Sterling testifies of the falsity of Trump’s election fraud claims in his state, and the threats that followed his press conference.

Speaker Bowers testifies of being doxxed after rebuffing Trump’s false elector scheme. “We received, my secretaries would say, in excess of 20,000 emails and tens of thousands of voicemails and texts, which saturated our offices and we were unable to work—at least, communicate. But at home, up till even recently, it is a new pattern or pattern in our lives to worry what would come Saturdays, because we have various groups come by and they have had video panel trucks with videos proclaiming me to be a pedophile and a pervert and a corrupt politician, and blaring loud speakers in my neighborhood, and leaving literature on my property and arguing and yelling with my neighbors and with myself. I don’t know if I should name groups, but there was one gentleman that had the three bars on his chest”—a Three Percenter—“and he had a pistol, and was threatening with my neighbor, not with the pistol, but just vocally. When I saw the gun, I knew I had to get close.” He said some of these harassments came while his daughter was “gravely ill,” and she “was upset by what was happening outside.” “It was very disturbing,” Bowers said.

Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers

Bowers reads a passage from his journal, dated sometime in December, 2020: “It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor. I may, in the eyes of men, not hold correct opinions or act according to their vision or convictions, but I do not take this current situation in a light manner, a fearful manner, or a vengeful manner. I do not want to be a winner by cheating. I will not play with laws I swore allegiance to, with any contrived desire towards deflection of my deep, foundational desire to follow God’s will as I believe He led my conscience to embrace. How else will I ever approach Him in the wilderness of life, knowing that I ask of this guidance only to show myself a coward in defending the course He led me to take?” He says his faith prevents him from violating his oath to the Constitution, which he believes is divinely inspired.

Two Georgia elections workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, testify that they were threatened and had to go into hiding after being falsely accused of election fraud by Giuliani, Trump, and pro-Trump media. Moss testifies she was just doing her job. She says people came to the home of her grandmother and threatened to make a “citizen’s arrest.”

Moss: "I was just doing my job"

Lady Ruby: "Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you?"

Freeman testifies of the fear and trauma of being falsely accused: “There is nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target them.”

June 23, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 5)

The fifth January 6th hearing explores the attempt of Donald Trump to misuse the Department of Justice to keep himself in office. Jeffrey Rosen and Richard Donohue testify of their resistance Trump. Highlighted is a letter Trump unsuccessfully lobbied behind the scenes to have sent to states telling them to decertify the election.

June 28, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 6)

The sixth hearing features an insider view of the dealings inside the Trump White House after the 2020 election. Former aide Cassidy Hutchinson testifies.

July 2022

The FBI and grand jury review footage taken from Mar-a-Lago’s surveillance cameras and observe the movement of boxes.

July 12, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 7)

The seventh hearing covers the advice President Trump ignored from his inner circle. Clips are played of various witnesses who testifying under oath that they believed Trump should have conceded the by the time the Electoral College met (December 14th): Labor Secretary Gene Scalia; White House Pat Cipollone; Attorney General Bill Barr; White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany; advisor Ivanka Trump; Deputy Press Secretary Judson Deere. Those who told Trump to concede found he disagreed.

Cipollone testified he agreed with Barr’s earlier conclusions that evidence of significant voter fraud did not exist. Barr testified Trump suggested the Justice Department should seize voting machines. “I said, ‘Absolutely not. There’s no probable cause. I’m not going to seize any machines.’ And that was that.” Read is the proposed EO to seize voting machines and appoint Sidney Powell to review them. Cipollone testified he was “vehemently opposed” to the idea: “To have the federal government seize voting machines? That’s a terrible idea for the country. That’s not how we do things in the United States. There is no legal authority to do that.”

Trump Campaign Senior Advisor Jason Miller testified that he had general documentation of a “handful” of fraudulent votes in several states that he sent to Rep. Mo Brooks. But he admitted the evidence of voter fraud was “thin.” Deputy Campaign Manager Justin Clark testified it was “fair” to say Rudy Giuliani did not produce any evidence of voter fraud.

July 21, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 8)

The ninth hearing on January 6th focuses on Donald Trump’s lack of interest in stopping the violence at the U.S. Capitol Building.

Rep. Elaine Luria says the president was notified of the Capitol riot as soon as he arrived at the Oval Office from the rally. “Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack. At 1:25, President Trump went to the private dining room off the Oval Office. From 1:25 until 4 o’clock, the President stayed in his dining room. . . . Witnesses told us that, on January 6th, President Trump sat in his usual spot, at the head of the table facing a television hanging on the wall. We know from the employee that the TV was tuned to Fox News all afternoon.” While the violence unfolded, “President Trump was in the dining room with the TV on for more than 2 ½ hours,” witnesses told the committee. Presidential call logs that day from 11:06 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. came to the committee blank, as did the presidential diary from 1:21 p.m. to 4:03 p.m. The White House photographer was told “no photographs.” No known calls were made to the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, nor the Secretary of Homeland Security by President Trump on January 6th.

Deposition testimony is played regarding Trump’s inaction. White House counsel Pat Cipollone testified under oath President Trump did not to his knowledge call the Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, nor Homeland Security Secretary on January 6th. Gen. Keith Kellogg similarly testified in his sworn deposition he never heard President Trump call up the D.C. National Guard nor ask for any law enforcement response—and said he would have known if troops had been called to the rally. President Trump’s personal assistant at the White House, Nicholas Luna, testified under oath that he never saw the president reach out to the National Guard, the Department of Defense, the FBI, Homeland Security, the Secret Service, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, nor the Capitol Police about the situation at the Capitol Building.

Cipollone testified that when he first heard of the riot, he immediately and forcefully advised Trump to tell his people to leave the Capitol, but he was ignored until hours later, when he was joined by Ivanka Trump, attorney Eric Hershmann, and Mark Meadows to encourage the president to make a strong statement. Trump finally told his people to “go home in peace” at 4:17, more than three hours into the riot.

August 8, 2022

A search warrant is executed at Mar-a-Lago by the FBI to seize classified documents. The search happens while Donald Trump is out of town. An uncooperative Trump says his home is “under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” The agents discover 102 classified documents at the residence. Some were in Trump’s office, others back in the storage room.

The 102 documents cover military and nuclear capabilities of foreign countries and the United States, potential vulnerabilities, and other classified information meant for a current president and national defense leaders to keep the nation and allies from harm.

August 12, 2022

Trump supporter Ricky Shiffer is fatally shot after he fired weapons at an FBI office in Ohio. He had posted online he was “ready for combat” due to the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago. Shiffer is suspected of participating in the January 6th attack on the Capitol.

September 6, 2022

News 6 in Florida reports an anonymous tipster has found 282 possible incidents of voter fraud. Highlighted in the report are three registered Republicans—from the same retirement community, The Villages—who voted in Florida and in their previous home state.

September 14, 2022

A supporter of Donald Trump, carrying three handguns, enters a Dairy Queen in Pennsylvania and threatens to use violence to “restore Trump as president.”

October 13, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 9)

The ninth hearing presents evidence that the Secret Service was aware of threats against the Capitol ahead of January 6th. Although someone deleted texts and emails ahead of the hearings, a few recovered by the committee show the Secret Service knew by January 4th there were calls “to occupy federal buildings” and threats to “invad[e] the capitol building.” They anticipated “political violence at the event” on January 6th, and were warned to “arm themselves.” The Secret Service had advanced knowledge more than ten days before the event that Proud Boys were preparing to march into Capitol chambers and potentially kill people. “They think that they will have a large enough group to march into DC armed and will outnumber the police so they can’t be stopped. . . . Their plan is to literally kill people. Please please take this tip seriously and investigate further,” one Secret Service email read.

Testimony of Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley confirmed that Deputy Defense Secretary David Nordquist had warned days prior to the attack, “The greatest threat is a direct assault on the Capitol.”

The committee shows evidence Roger Stone advised President Trump days ahead of the riot. On December 28, 2020, Stone posted on Parlor that he recently spoke to Trump face-to-face the day before and told him to appoint a special counsel to charge and convict those “attempting to steal the 2020 election.” Stone wrote this action will “ensure Donald Trump continues as our president.”

Roger Stone declines to condemn Jan. 6 violence

In a clip of his deposition, Stone refused to condemn the violence on January 6th. Asked whether he had a role in planning violence for that day, Stone again took the Fifth: “Once again, I will assert my Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer your question.”

October 28, 2022

QAnon adherent David DePape breaks into the home of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and attacks her 82-year-old husband with a hammer. DePape had made online posts supportive of Donald Trump and Kanye West. He once commented that any journalist who disputed Trump’s stolen election claims “should be dragged straight out into the street and shot.”

November 17, 2022

Donald “Kirk” Hartle pleads guilty to double-voting in the 2020 election. Hartle, a registered Republican and businessman who hosted a 2020 Trump rally in Nevada, admitted to voting in the name of his deceased wife. He had originally claimed on local television that a thief stole his wife’s ballot. “That is pretty sickening to me, to be honest with you,” he said at the time.

November 22, 2022

Donald Trump hosts controversial rapper Kanye West and notorious blogger Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago. West recently sparked public outrage over his antisemitic posts on Twitter. Fuentes similarly has disparaged Jews and denied the holocaust.

November 25, 2022

Kanye West says that at Mar-a-Lago, he asked Trump to be his running mate for 2024. It did not go well: “I think the thing that Trump was most perturbed about, me asking him to be my vice president. When Trump started basically screaming at me at the table telling me I was going to lose—I mean has that ever worked for anyone in history—I’m like hold on, hold on, hold on, Trump, you’re talking to Ye.” He says, “Trump is really impressed with Nick Fuentes,” and described the white nationalist who wore a VIP badge on January 6th as “actually a loyalist.” West says he told Trump he should have pardoned the Capitol rioters when he “had a chance.”

November 26, 2022

Donald Trump acknowledges Kanye West’s antisemitic statements, saying, “We got along great, he expressed no anti-Semitism & I appreciated all of the nice things he said about me on ‘Tucker Carlson.’ Why wouldn’t I agree to meet? Also, I didn’t know Nick Fuentes”—despite Fuentes’ longstanding and public support for Trump and his adoption of the “America First” label. (Fuentes would later say that non-Christians “must be absolutely annihilated when we take power” and that he would do violence on Trump’s behalf.)

December 1, 2022

Dinesh D‘Souza and others involved in the movie “2000 Mules” are sued by Mark Andrews, a Georgia resident who appeared in the film without his knowledge or consent, under the wrongful accusation of voter fraud. Andrews‘ face appeared unblurred in some promos for the film during D‘Souza‘s voiceover, “What you are seeing is a crime,” as Andrews lawfully dropped mail-in votes for himself and his family. Andrews says he has received death threats as a result of the libelous claims in the film.

December 3, 2022

On Truth Social, Donald Trump calls for “termination” of “all rules, regulations, and articles” in the Constitution: “So, with the revelation of MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION in working closely with Big Tech Companies, the DNC, & the Democrat Party, do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”

Trump: Terminate the Constitution over election fraud claims

December 7, 2022

A Manhattan jury finds the Trump Organization criminally guilty of tax fraud. While Donald Trump was not personally charged, his actions are central to the conviction.

December 19, 2022 — Jan. 6 Hearing (Day 10)

The tenth and final hearing for the January 6th Select Committee plays more footage and depositions, and summarizes some of its findings.

Rep. Liz Cheney speaks on the importance of the peaceful transfer of political power: “Every president in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority, except one. January 6, 2021, was the first time one American president refused his constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully to the next.”

Rep. Jamie Raskin recommends criminal charges for Donald Trump under 18 U.S.C § 1512(c) (obstruction of an official proceeding); 18 U.S.C § 371 (conspiracy to defraud the United State); 18 U.S.C § 1001 (knowingly making false statements in administrative matters); and 18 U.S.C § 2383 (rebellion or insurrection).

January 13, 2023

The Trump Organization is ordered to pay $1.6 million for its criminal tax fraud conviction.

January 30, 2023

On Truth Social, Donald Trump calls U.S. intelligence officials such as James Comey “lowlifes,” “Misfits,” “slime,” and “bad people.” He presents Vladamir Putin as more trustworthy: “Who would you choose, Putin or these Misfits?”

March 4, 2023

At CPAC, Donald Trump promises to “expel the warmongers,” “cast out the communists,” and liberate America from RINOs, “once and for all.” He calls Paul Ryan, Karl Rove, and Jeb Bush “freaks.” He complains of Ukraine funding and says NATO should foot the bill. He says he is the only candidate who can “very easily” prevent “world war three.” He declares, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution. Not going to let this happen.” He complains there are “antifa thugs who are allowed to roam the streets“ while Capitol rioters (“great, great patriots”) are “rotting away” in jail and “being treated so unfairly, like nobody probably has ever been treated in this country before—except maybe me.”

Trump says prosecutors are coming after him for “so many things” because they are racist against him, and grand juries are trying to “lynch” him.

March 31, 2023

A Manhattan grand jury indicts Donald Trump for thirty-four felonies in the “hush money” case regarding Stormy Daniels and other women. He pleads “not guilty.”

May 9, 2023

Donald Trump is found liable for sexual abuse. A jury orders Trump to pay $5 million to E. Jean Carroll for harming her in 1996.

June 8, 2023

A grand jury indicts Donald Trump and Walt Nauta for unlawfully handling classified defense secrets. The indictment reads, in part: “The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack. The unauthorized disclosure ofthese classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

July 31, 2023

Donald Trump publishes an op-ed in Newsweek, blaming the Ukraine war not on Putin but on what Trump calls “the Russia Hoax” of “Deep State plotters” who investigated his ties to Russia and tried to “frame” him “with treason.”

August 1, 2023

Matthew DePerno, a Republican endorsed by Trump for the Michigan attorney general race in 2022, faces criminal charges for attempting to seize voting machines in 2020 to prove Trump won. Former state representative Daire Rendon is also accused in the scheme.

August 3, 2023

A pro-Trump lawyer, Stefanie Lambert Junttila, becomes the third person charged in the Michigan voting machine seizure attempt.

August 22, 2023

Ohio Trump supporter James Saunders, a lawyer, is convicted for double-voting in the 2020 and 2022 general elections. Records show Saunders also double-voted in 2014 and 2016. Saunders donated $5,500 to Trump’s campaign and the RNC.

August 24, 2023

Donald Trump is arrested in Georgia, on charges of interfering with the 2020 election in that state. He surrenders for a mugshot. Several others similarly turn themselves in to Georgia authorities in connection with the case: Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, Sidney Powell, Kenneth Chesebro, Harrison Floyd, Ray Smith, Scott Hall, Cathay Latham, and David Shafer.

September 17, 2023

Donald Trump appears on Meet the Press. Trump says, “I challenged a rigged election and now I’m going to win for a third time.” He says, “I have all the facts” of a stolen election, and, “We have so much evidence.” He says he “called the shots” regarding the election fraud claims. He appears to accidentally admit he lost in 2020, by saying the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story “had a huge impact on the election” and cost him “over 10 points. I didn’t need ten points. I needed one tenth of a point. . . . I needed a very small—I think somebody said 22,000 votes.” Asked, “To win?” he responds, “Yeah. If you divided among the states, it was 22,000 votes, something to that effect. Yeah.”

Trump: Suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story cost me the election

Trump defends the “J6 people” as having “suffered.” He alleges the January 6th Select Committee “destroyed all the evidence,” and also says “they announced they destroyed and deleted most of the evidence.” Trump says he “offered two days before” the Capitol attack “10,000 soldiers” to the D.C. mayor and Nancy Pelosi, but “they turned it down flat.” Asked whether he called military or law enforcement as he watched the attack from the White House, Trump refuses to answer: “I’m not going to tell you anything. Let me put it this way: I behaved so well. I did such a good job.” He then admits inaction during the attack. Questioned, “Why didn’t you send help in that moment, though?” he answers, “Frankly, just so you understand, I assumed that she [Pelosi] took care of it.” He says he “asked”—did not order—“the National Guard to be there three days in advance, and she turned it down.” (Note: The House Speaker is not in charge of Capitol security, which is handled by a board representing both House and Senate. The D.C. National Guard is under the direction of the U.S. president. The January 6th committee found no evidence the Guard received a preemptive presidential order for 10,000 troops.)

On abortion, Trump says he will please both sides. “Roe v. Wade was terminated and was put back to the states. Now, pro-lifers have the right to negotiate, for the first time.” He implies abortion should be allowed in the early months. “Nobody wants to see abortion after five months. . . . Now the number of months will be determined. . . . Because of the fact we brought it back to the states, we’re going to have people come together on this issue. They’re going to determine the time” to permit abortion. “We’re going to come together. . . . I’m going to come together with all groups, and we’re going to have something that’s acceptable.” He concludes, “I think they’re all going to like me. I think both sides are going to like me.”

The same day, during Rosh Hashanah, Trump uploads to Truth Social a “reminder for liberal Jews who voted to destroy America & Israel because you believed false narratives!” The message includes the language: “Wake Up Sheep. What Natzi / Anti Semite ever did this for the Jewish people or Israel?” with an obscene description of Trump’s accomplishments: “No other president had the b***s to do it.” The post ends, “Clearly, one of the greatest Anti Semites of our time!”

October 7, 2023

Israeli citizens are caught by surprise by Hamas terrorists, who brutally ambush and murder 1,200 and take others hostage, in a massive security failure.

October 12, 2023

At a rally in Florida, Donald Trump says Benjamin Netanyahu shares blame for the October 7th attack on Israel, and criticizes him for “saying the wrong things.” Trump then describes Hamas and Hezbollah as “smart”: “I’ll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down—that was a very terrible thing. I will say that. And so, when I see sometimes the intelligence—you talk about the intelligence, or you talk about some of the things that went wrong over the last week. They’ve got to straighten it out, because they’re fighting potentially a very big force. They’re fighting potentially Iran. And when they have people saying the wrong things, everything they say is digested by these people because they’re vicious and they’re smart, and boy are they vicious, because nobody’s ever seen the kind of sight that we’ve seen.” Of the Iranian terror group Hezbollah, he says, “Hezbollah is very smart, they’re very smart.”

Trump says Hamas and Hezbolah are "smart"

October 19, 2023

Trump attorney Sidney Powell pleads “guilty” to multiple misdemeanors in the Georgia case.

October 20, 2023

Trump attorney Kenneth Chesebro pleads “guilty” to one count in the Georgia case.

October 24, 2023

Trump attorney Jenna Ellis tearfully pleads “guilty” to one count in the Georgia case, and admits there were no facts to support stolen election claims: “If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges. I look back on this experience with deep remorse.”

A tearful Jenna Ellis pleads guilty

November 30, 2023

On “Truth Social,” Donald Trump shares a call to arrest the Metropolitan and Capitol Police who guarded the Capitol on January 6th: “The cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed.” Included is an image of officers apparently being crushed by the mob at the west tunnel entrance (the Chute).

In a podcast, former House speaker and 2012 VP candidate Paul Ryan calls Republicans like Matt Gaetz “nihilists” who “go to Congress to entertain, to provoke, to fight—and they’re not fighting to win, they’re fighting to fight.” He says Republicans are not seeking to advance principle or to pass legislation, but to get “hits and clicks” and to “get famous.” Ryan believes history will favor Republicans who lost their careers exposing Trump, saying, “Trump is not a conservative. He’s an authoritarian and a narcissist.” Ryan says, “Historically speaking, all of his tendencies are basically where narcissism takes him. . . . He doesn’t think in classical-liberal, conservative terms, he thinks in an authoritarian way.”

Ryan: Trump is "an authoritarian and a narcissist"

Ryan says Republicans should be more willing to sacrifice their careers for principle: “I don’t think you can be really very good at these jobs unless you’re willing to lose these jobs, and there has to be some line, some principle, that is so important to you that you’re just not going to cross, so that when you’re brushing your teeth in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, you like what you see.”

Ryan believes more Senators would have voted to convict Trump in the second impeachment if they realized he was going to run again: “They thought, after January 6th, he wasn’t going to have a comeback,” so they voted against conviction to avoid the “heat.”

December 6, 2023

Sean Hannity says to Donald Trump, “You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.” Trump disagrees: “Except for day one.” He lists closing the border and “drill, drill, drill.” Hannity: “That’s not retribution.” Trump: “I love this guy. He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I say, ‘No, no, no. Other than day one.’” He again mentions the border and drilling.

December 16, 2023

At a campaign rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump says Joe Biden is a “threat to democracy,” and he quotes Vladimir Putin saying Trump’s legal troubles are “politically-motivated persecution.” Trump praises Putin loyalist Viktor Orban, and calls Kim Jong Un “very nice.”

Trump: Kim Jong Un is "very nice"

January 4, 2024

Officer Daniel Hodges, whose filmed assault by the mob showed the brutality police suffered at the west tunnel entrance, tells NPR he has received death threats for speaking about January 6th. “I was assaulted many times throughout the day. I was beaten, punched, kicked, pushed, beaten with my own riot baton in the head, crushed with the police shields. Someone tried to gouge out one of my eyes.” Messages he has received include “explicit stuff of suicides.”

January 8, 2024

Mediaite publishes an exclusive audio of Roger Stone talking to his (since fired) NYPD friend, Salvatore Greco, saying “it’s time” that either Rep. Eric Swalwell or Rep. Jerry Nadler “has to die.” “Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it. Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either Swalwell or Nadler has to die before the election. They need to get the message.” The recording reportedly was made some time before the 2020 election. The two congressmen mentioned were House impeachment managers against Trump.

Roger Stone and Sal Greco

March 4, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court rules in the Colorado case, Trump v. Anderson, that states have no power to bar insurrectionist candidates from seeking federal office. Donald Trump is ordered to remain on the ballot.

March 8, 2024

Donald Trump hosts Putin ally Viktor Orbán at Mar-a-Lago: “There’s nobody that’s better, smarter, or a better leader than Victor Orbán, who is fantastic. As you know, the prime minister of Hungary.”

March 11, 2024

For the first time publicly, twenty-year Mar-a-Lago employee Brian Butler admits to being asked to move 10-15 boxes that resembled the ones pictured in the classified documents indictment. He says the unusual request only made sense after the indictment came down. Butler says he overheard Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt discussing classified U.S. and Russian submarine secrets, after leaving a meeting with Donald Trump in the spring of 2021.

March 12, 2024

Tom Joscelyn, a drafter of the January 6th Select Committee’s final report, debunks Mark Meadows’ 2021 claim that Trump ordered 10,000 National Guard troops to “be on the ready”: “The committee could not find any evidence to support Meadows’ claim. Indeed, Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense at the time, Chris Miller, directly refuted it in his testimony under oath—explaining that the president did not issue any such order.”

Joscelyn says the Committee heard testimony that Trump “floated the idea of deploying 10,000 National Guardsmen,” but it was described as “mainly to protect him and his supporters as they marched together to the U.S. Capitol.” Joscelyn notes that the committee found “no evidence” of Trump making any such order.

“Nonetheless,” writes Joscelyn, “on Mar. 8, [2024,] Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) and The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway tried to resuscitate the claim. In a hyperbolic piece, Hemingway alleges that: ‘Former Rep. Liz Cheney’s January 6 Committee suppressed evidence that President Donald Trump pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the nation’s capital, a previously hidden transcript’ [of Secret Service agent Anthony Ornato].”

Joscelyn continues, “First, there was no conspiracy to ‘suppress’ Ornato’s Jan. 2022 transcript. Instead, the Secret Service made Ornato available to the committee with the understanding that the transcript of his interview would not be released without the agency’s consent. ...

“Second, a version of the supposedly key testimony that Loudermilk and Hemingway claim was ‘withheld’ and ‘suppressed’ has been publicly available for more than a year—in the transcript of Ornato’s Nov. 29, 2022 interview with the committee. ...

“Third, in his Jan. 2022 testimony, Ornato said that Meadows offered the National Guard’s assistance to Mayor Bowser because of concerns about violence ‘out on the mall area or at the event’ but ‘not anywhere near the Capitol.’ ...

“Fourth, Ornato testified in Jan. 2022 that he was not aware of any ‘order’ to deploy the National Guard on Jan. 6, 2021. Both Loudermilk and Hemingway ignored or otherwise failed to mention this part of Ornato’s testimony, which is entirely consistent with the January 6th Committee’s finding. ...

“Fifth, the January 6th Committee’s final report cited testimony that Trump suggested 10,000 National Guardsmen may be needed to protect him and his supporters—not the U.S. Capitol. ...

“Sixth, Trump’s Acting Secretary of Defense, Chris Miller, told the committee that Trump did not issue an order to deploy 10,000 National Guardsmen on Jan. 6. ...

“Seventh, Hemingway asserts that Kash Patel’s testimony would not have been dismissed by the Colorado Supreme Court if the Ornato transcript was publicly available. This does not make sense. ... Testifying before the January 6th Committee, Patel did not claim that Trump issued any order.”

Joscelyn concludes, “The January 6th Select Committee found ‘no evidence’ that ‘President Trump gave an order to have 10,000 troops ready for January 6th.’ . . . Nothing in the Jan. 2022 transcript of Ornato’s testimony released by Loudermilk refutes that finding. In fact, neither Loudermilk nor Hemingway even claim that such an order was issued. Instead, they use slippery language, such as alleging that the transcript shows Trump ‘pushed for 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the nation’s capital,’ meaning the city of Washington, D.C. Close readers will notice they did not write the nation’s ‘Capitol,’ and there’s nothing in Ornato’s transcript about the National Guardsmen being deployed to protect the U.S. Capitol, which was attacked by Trump’s mob on Jan. 6, 2021.”

March 15, 2024

Mike Pence announces on Fox News, “It should come as no surprise that I will not be endorsing Trump this year,” in part because “I have seen him starting to shy away from a commitment to the sanctity of human life” and other parts of the conservative agenda. “I cannot in good conscience endorse Donald Trump and his campaign.”

March 16, 2024

Campaigning for a candidate in Dayton, Ohio, Donald Trump plays a video of jailed January 6th attackers singing the National Anthem. Trump opens by saying, “You see the spirit from the hostages. And that’s what they are: hostages.” He calls them “unbelievable patriots” for what they did on January 6th. “They were unbelievable patriots—and are.” He calls MAGA “the greatest movement in the history of our country.”

At a 2024 campaign stop in Dayton, Trump honored J6 convicts with a clip of them singing the National Anthem from prison. He called them "unbelievable patriots" for attacking the U.S. Capitol. J6 convicts with longer prison sentences are serving time for seditious conspiracy or for assaulting police. Trump has promised pardons.

Trump reveals he knew Putin would attack Ukraine, but claims he told him not to do it: “Number one, I said, ‘Don’t do it,’ and number two, the oil prices were too low for them to do it, they couldn’t have afforded it.” He says the October 7th attack on Israel wouldn’t have happened if he was president, because he made Iran broke.

Trump swears frequently when mentioning Biden, and calls him “stupid,” “incompetent,” “corrupt,” and China’s “Manchurian Candidate.” He says the U.S. illegally has “hundreds of thousands” of “hardened criminals” from Congo, Venezuela, Yemen, and the Middle East, and these are “destroying our country.”

Trump reads “The Snake.” He says, “I think I am persecuted more than anybody, but who the h*** knows?” He says historians say Andrew Jackson was “persecuted as president more than anybody else, second was Abraham Lincoln. . . . But nobody comes close to Trump.”

Trump says, “They said, ‘Sir. Please don’t talk about people that way. They’re Republicans.’ I said, ‘I don’t give a s***.’”

Frustrated, he complains, “I can’t read the d*** teleprompter.” He says, “I got indicted more than Al Capone.”

Trump says he reduced the flow of fentanyl by threatening China’s President Xi with tariffs and the death penalty for Chinese manufacturers. He says, “Let me tell you something, to China. If you’re listening, President Xi, and you and I are friends, but he understands the way I deal, those big, monster car manufacturing plants that you’re building in Mexico right now, and you think you’re going to get that, and you’re going to not hire Americans, and you’re going to sell the cars to us, no. We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those cars if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole—that’s [the tariff’s] going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

March 17, 2024

At Truth Social, Trump calls for the prosecution of Liz Cheney: “SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!” He links to a Kash Patel article claiming “Cheney and her band of miscreants suppressed”—not destroyed, as Trump says—“evidence” that “exonerates Trump from their ginned-up charge of insurrection.” The issue is the testimony of Tony Ornato that the Secret Service (not the committee) kept confidential until recently, regarding 10,000 National Guardsmen. (According to Tom Joscelyn, the committee did not overlook Oranato’s testimony, which actually confirmed there was no order for the deployment of 10,000 troops to the Capitol.)

In another post at Truth Social, Trump says Cheney and the entire January 6th Select Committee “should go to Jail,” with a link saying that the committee “withheld crucial evidence” about whether Trump tried to grab the steering wheel to attend the Capitol riot. The supposedly “new” evidence shows the Secret Service driver that day corroborating the main point, that Trump was irritated the Secret Service would not allow him to join the rioters at the Capitol. The driver had testified: “I did not see [Trump] reach. He never grabbed the steering wheel. I didn’t see him, you know, lunge to try to get into the front seat at all. You know, what stood out was the irritation in his voice, more than his physical presence.”

Trump also shares an opinion with the title: “The Rebranding Of The GOP Into MAGA Can Be Accelerated With The Trump Team’s Takeover Of The RNC.” The author writes, “Republicans have been weak—they have long preferred being seen as ‘respectable’ by those who hate them. . . . But the dominoes of the old Republican establishment order . . . are slowly toppling, one by one. The rising Republican order can only be MAGA, and Donald Trump above anyone else captures the vision and message for how the party—and indeed, the country—must be directed, not only over the next four years, but at least the next four generations. . . . The RNC is poised now to become a powerful instrument in President Trump’s toolkit[.] . . . By aligning President Trump’s campaign with the RNC, there no longer will be doubt that the Republican Party is anything but the MAGA party[.]”

March 11, 2024

Donald Trump tells CNBC, “I’m not conservative. You know what I am? I’m a man of common sense.” Concerning social media, Trump says, “I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people, along with a lot of the media.”

March 18, 2024

Michael Cohen tells former RNC chair Michael Steele that “making Trump president was the absolute worst idea I ever had, bar none. Now our national security is potentially at risk, not just because of the documents that we know that he had, but more importantly because of positioning that he is in right now as one of the leaders of one of our two political parties in this country.”

March 19, 2024

While socializing at Mar-a-Lago, Roger Stone speaks of a plan to make Trump president by court rulings. He implies a close involvement in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. Stone says this time he is “working with a team.” He says another January 6th attack “may not be necessary” if Trump is installed by the courts. Stone appears to advocate for “doxxing” judges into submission: “This time when they do it, you have a lawyer and a judge, his home phone number standing by so you can stop it. We made no preparations last time. None.” He says Trump will sue over such things as handwritten ballots, and this means “we’re finally now on offensive footing.”

Stone at Mar-a-Lago, March 19, 2024: We will use courts to shift the election

March 20, 2024

Consistent with his long-standing and contradictory stance as a “pro-lifer” to not seek protection for all unborn babies at every stage of development, Donald Trump says “hard-liners” agree that abortion before “15 weeks” is “reasonable.”

April 17, 2024

Sgt. Maj. Brooks: The U.S. President commands the D.C. National Guard

Retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Brooks, senior enlisted leader of the D.C. National Guard the day of the Capitol attack, testifies before a House subcommittee about January 6th. He says the D.C. National Guard is “unique,” in that it is directly under the command of the U.S. President, who delegates to the Secretary of Defense, down to the Secretary of the Army. He says that when Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund made his first frantic call at 1:49 p.m. on January 6th, “we would have prevented the breach of the Capitol. What I can tell you with absolute certainty is that we had a force equipped and ready to respond,” with a workable plan already in place. “Instead, we waited for hours less than two miles east of the Capitol, knowing our Capitol had been breached and not understanding why we had not received the authorization to respond.”

April 30, 2024

Time Magazine publishes an interview with Donald Trump, reiterating his call for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and “get back to normalcy.” Trump says he doesn’t believe there are “all of these hostages” being held alive by Hamas. “I think you have very few hostages.” He criticizes Netanyahu for allowing the October 7th attack to happen “on his watch”: “Because people said that shouldn’t have happened.”

Asked about his inaction on January 6th, Trump shifts blame to others. He promises to pardon Capitol insurrectionists, because they were “ushered in.” He claims his opponents “destroyed all evidence.” Asked if violence can be expected if he loses in November, Trump says there will be no violence because “we’re gonna have a big victory.”

June 3, 2024

A jury finds Donald Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide an alleged affair from voters during the 2016 election. Trump had used his lawyer Michael Cohen as a middleman to pay a porn star, Stephanie Clifford, to keep her quiet over her allegations of an affair that occurred soon after his wife had given birth. The payments began weeks before the 2016 election handed Trump a win, and continued into his presidency. Trump becomes the first president in U.S. history to be convicted of a crime. The former president awaits trial in other cases, for interfering with the 2020 election and mishandling classified materials.

Jury finds Trump guilty on all counts in criminal trial

June 30, 2024

On his social media platform, Donald Trump calls for prosecuting (and potentially executing) Liz Cheney for treason. “Elizabeth Lynne Cheney is guilty of treason,” said the post written by a supporter, and shared by the former president. “Retruth if you want televised military tribunals.” Trump has promoted the idea previously, such as when he falsely claimed in March that Cheney “ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE,” and said “SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY!”

July 1, 2024

The Supreme Court—in a tardy, 6-3 decision delayed since December—rules in Trump v. United States that former presidents have “absolute immunity” from judicial prosecution for crimes. All three of Trump’s appointees—Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett—side with the majority to favor the twice-impeached Trump and potentially interfere with his 88 felony charges. The three dissenting justices—Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson—slam the opinion for treating the president as “a king above the law.”

The same day, Steve Bannon begins serving his four-month federal prison sentence for defying a congressional subpoena. Bannon had refused to cooperate with the January 6th Select Committee in 2021.

July 2, 2024

As a result of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision, sentencing for Trump’s June 3rd conviction is postponed until September, in place of the previous scheduled date of July 11th.

The same day, Rudy Giuliani is disbarred in New York for abusing his position to “falsely and dishonestly” further the lie that Trump won the 2020 election. The Manhattan appeals court found that Giuliani made statements he knew to be false “to improperly bolster respondent’s narrative that due to widespread voter fraud, victory in the 2020 United States presidential election was stolen from his client,” Donald Trump. Giuliani has not argued a case in court since 1992.

July 8, 2024

The Republican Party removes its longstanding anti-abortion plank from the party platform, along with its formerly strong statements on the Second Amendment and traditional marriage. The platform committee is forbidden from presenting any amendments or from debating the changes before it is approved.

July 13, 2024

Candidate Donald Trump is wounded in the ear and nearly killed during a rally in Pennsylvania. After gaining composure, Trump pumps his fist and shouts “FIGHT!” to his supporters before being escorted to safety.

July 14, 2024

President Joe Biden condemns the Trump shooting and calls on the nation to “lower the temperature in our politics.” He says that no matter political disagreements, “We must never descend into violence.”

July 15, 2024

Trump-appointed judge Aileen Cannon dismisses the documents case against Donald Trump. She does not rule on the merits, but rather disagrees with the longstanding practice of appointing a special counsel. Trump’s guilt or innocence in the case is left unresolved.

The same day, Donald Trump selects J.D. Vance as his running-mate. Vance, who once called Trump “America’s Hitler,” a “moral disaster,” and “villainous,” had changed his tune while running for Senate in 2022. Vance has held elective office for eighteen months. Asked while campaigning in 2022 to assess Vladimir Putin's recent invasion of Ukraine, the then-candidate said, “I gotta be honest with you. I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

July 15-18

The Republican National Convention is held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

July 21, 2024

President Joe Biden withdraws from the 2024 presidential race.

August 2, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris is nominated remotely for the Democratic nomination.

August 19-22, 2024

The Democratic National Convention is held in Chicago, Illinois.

September 4, 2024

Two Russia Today employees, Konstantin Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva, are indicted in the U.S. for meddling in the 2024 election. The two are accused of paying a company in Tennessee $10 million to distribute pro-Russia propaganda. The Tennessee company, reportedly Tenet Media, then hired social media influencers to bolster Donald Trump and “weaken U.S. opposition” to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

September 10, 2024

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump meet for the first time at the presidential debate stage. Asked whether he regrets his actions on January 6, 2021, Trump shifts blame to the officer who shot Ashli Babbitt, and diverts attention to illegal immigrants. “What about those people? When are they going to be prosecuted?” he dodges, and goes on, “When are the people that burned down Minneapolis going to be prosecuted?” Asked again, he inaccurately states that Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the outcome on January 6th. Harris replies that she was at the Capitol when ”the President of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol.” She offers to “stand for rule of law” and “end the chaos.” The moderator asks Trump if he wants Ukraine to win the war. Trump declines to affirm and says he wants to “negotiate a deal.” Harris says, “If Donald Trump were president, Putin would be sitting in Kyiv right now.”

September 11, 2024

Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director under Trump, tells a podcast his former boss acts like a Russian asset: “I don’t know that I would characterize it as active, recruited, knowing asset in the way that people in the intelligence community think of that term. But I do think that Donald Trump has given us many reasons to question his approach to the Russia problem in the United States, and I think his approach to interacting with Vladimir Putin, be it phone calls, face-to-face meetings, the things that he has said in public about Putin, all raise significant questions.”

Part 6: The Next Phase​January 7, 2021—and Beyond