Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack
Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2022 5:56 am
Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol
117th Congress Second Session
House Report 117-000
December X, 2022
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PRELIMINARIES
• Foreword: Speaker of the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
• Foreword: Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
• Foreword: Vice Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
• Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
o Executive Summary: Overview of the Evidence Developed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
o Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel and House Ethics Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
o Efforts to Avoid Testifying, Evidence of Obstruction, and Assessments of Witness Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
o Summary: Creation of the Select Committee; Purposes . . . . . . 128
o Select Committee Witnesses Were Almost Entirely Republican . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
• NARRATIVE
• Chapter 1 THE BIG LIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
o 1.1 The Big Lie Reflected Deliberate Exploitation of the “Red Mirage” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
o 1.2 Trump’s Pre-Election Plans to Declare Victory . . . . . . . . . . . 199
o 1.3 Trump’s Pre-Election Efforts to Delegitimize the Election Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
o 1.4 President Trump’s Launch of the Big Lie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
o 1.5 Post-Election: President Trump Replaces His Campaign Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
o 1.6 President Trump’s Campaign Team Told Him He Lost the Election and There Was No Significant Fraud . . . . . . . 204
o 1.7 President Trump Had His Day in Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
o 1.8 President Trump Repeatedly Promoted Conspiracy Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
o 1.9 President Trump’s January 6th Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
• Chapter 2 “I JUST WANT TO FIND 11,780 VOTES” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
o 2.1 The Electoral College, and President Trump’s Attempt to Subvert It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
o 2.2 The Plan Emerges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
o 2.3 Outreach and Implementation of the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
o 2.4 An Outright Request for Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
o 2.5 Some Officials Eagerly Assisted President Trump With His Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
o 2.6 The Final Outreach to State Legislators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
o 2.7 The Harm Caused by Demonizing Public Servants . . . . . . . 300
• Chapter 3 FAKE ELECTORS AND THE “THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE STRATEGY” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
o 3.1 Laying the Groundwork for the Fake Elector Plan: The Chesebro Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
o 3.2 President Trump and the Campaign Adopt the Fake Elector Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
o 3.3 The Campaign Legal Team Bows Out, and Giuliani Steps In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
o 3.4 Some of the Proposed Fake Electors Express Concerns About the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
o 3.5 On December 14th, The Fake Electors Meet and Vote . . . 352
o 3.6 The Fallout from the Fake Elector Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
• Chapter 4 ‘‘JUST CALL IT CORRUPT AND LEAVE THE REST TO ME’’ . . . . . . . . . 373
o 4.1 The DOJ Found No Significant Evidence of Fraud . . . . . . . . 373
o 4.2 November 23, 2020: Barr Challenges President Trump’s Election Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
o 4.3 December 1, 2020: President Trump is Irate After Barr Says There is No Significant Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
o 4.4 December 14, 2020: Barr Submits His Resignation . . . . . . 379
o 4.5 Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue Hold the Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
o 4.6 President Trump is Introduced to Jeffrey Clark . . . . . . . . 382
o 4.7 December 27th Phone Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
o 4.8 Congressman Scott Perry Calls Donoghue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
o 4.9 December 28, 2020: The Clark Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
o 4.10 December 29th Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
o 4.11 Rosen’s December 30th Call with President Trump . . . . . 395
o 4.12 December 31st Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
o 4.13 January 2, 2021: Rosen and Donoghue Confront Clark Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
o 4.14 January 3, 2021: Clark Informs DOJ Leadership that He Will Accept President Trump’s Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
o 4.15 President Trump’s Unprecedented Attempt to Subvert the DOJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
• Chapter 5 “A COUP IN SEARCH OF A LEGAL THEORY” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
o 5.1 President Trump and His Allies Embark on a Desperate Gambit to Block Certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
o 5.2 President Trump and his Allies Exert Intense Public and Private Pressure on the Vice President in Advance of the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . 441
o 5.3 President Trump and his Allies Continue to Pressure the Vice President on January 6th, Threatening His Life and Our Democracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
o 5.4 President Trump Endangers Pence’s Life, Causing the Vice President, His Family, and Staff to Narrowly Miss the Rioters as They Flee the Mob Attacking the Capitol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
o 5.5 Aftermath of the Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
• Chapter 6 “BE THERE, WILL BE WILD!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
o 6.1 How Far-Right Extremists and Conspiracy Theorists Planned for January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
o 6.2 The Proud Boys: “[Y]ou Want to Storm the Capitol” . . . . 507
o 6.3 The Oath Keepers: “He Called Us All to the Capitol and Wants Us to Make it Wild!!!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
o 6.4 “Trump Said It’s Gonna be Wild!!!!!!! It’s Gonna be Wild!!!!!!!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
o 6.5 “Ready to Step in And Do What Is Needed” . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 6.6 “Friends of Stone” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
o 6.7 White Nationalists: “The Capitol Siege was Fucking Awesome…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
o 6.8 The Three (III%) Percenters: “#OccupyCongress” . . . . . . . 521
o 6.9 QAnon: “Operation Occupy the Capitol” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
o 6.10 TheDonald.win: “Occupy the Capitol” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
o 6.11 How the White House and Rally Organizers Prepared for January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
o 6.12 “He’s Calling on You, He Needs Your Help” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
o 6.13 “Trump is Supposed to Order Us to the Capitol” . . . . . . . 532
o 6.14 “Well, I Should Walk With the People.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
o 6.15 “POTUS…Likes the Crazies.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
o 6.16 January 5, 2021: “Fort Trump” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
o 6.17 “Together, We Will STOP THE STEAL.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
• Chapter 7 187 MINUTES OF DERELICTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
o 7.1 “Reinsert the Mike Pence Lines” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
o 7.2 “I’ll Be There With You” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
o 7.3 The President’s Anger When He Could Not March to the Capitol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
o 7.4 “We’re Going to Try to Get the President to Put Out a Statement” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
o 7.5 “He Doesn’t Want to Do Anything” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
o 7.6 “He Thinks Mike Deserves It” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
o 7.7 “I Guess They’re Just More Upset About the Election Theft Than You Are” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
o 7.8 “Stay Peaceful!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
o 7.9 “The President Needs to Stop This ASAP” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
o 7.10 “We Love You. You’re Very Special” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
o 7.11 “Remember This Day Forever!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
o 7.12 President Trump Still Sought to Delay the Joint Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
o 7.13 He “Just Didn’t Want to Talk About It Anymore” . . . . . . . . 610
o 7.14 President Trump’s “Rhetoric Killed Someone” . . . . . . . . . . 611
• Chapter 8 ANALYSIS OF THE ATTACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
o 8.1 The Mob Assembles in Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
o 8.2 March of the Proud Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
o 8.3 The Initial Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
o 8.4 President Trump’s Mob Descends on the U.S. Capitol . . . 647
o 8.5 The Mob Surges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
o 8.6 The United States Capitol is Breached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653
o 8.7 President Trump Pours Fuel on the Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
o 8.8 The Evacuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
o 8.9 Clearing the U.S. Capitol Building and Restricted Grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
• RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
• APPENDICES Appendix 1 GOVERNMENT AGENCY PREPARATION FOR AND RESPONSE TO JANUARY 6TH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
• APPENDIX 2: DC NATIONAL GUARD PREPARATION FOR AND RESPONSE TO JANUARY 6TH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
• APPENDIX 3: THE BIG RIP-OFF: FOLLOW THE MONEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770
• APPENDIX 4: MALIGN FOREIGN INFLUENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806
117th Congress Second Session
House Report 117-000
December X, 2022
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
WASHINGTON: 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PRELIMINARIES
• Foreword: Speaker of the House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
• Foreword: Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
• Foreword: Vice Chair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
• Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
o Executive Summary: Overview of the Evidence Developed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
o Referrals to the U.S. Department of Justice Special Counsel and House Ethics Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
o Efforts to Avoid Testifying, Evidence of Obstruction, and Assessments of Witness Credibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
o Summary: Creation of the Select Committee; Purposes . . . . . . 128
o Select Committee Witnesses Were Almost Entirely Republican . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
• NARRATIVE
• Chapter 1 THE BIG LIE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
o 1.1 The Big Lie Reflected Deliberate Exploitation of the “Red Mirage” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
o 1.2 Trump’s Pre-Election Plans to Declare Victory . . . . . . . . . . . 199
o 1.3 Trump’s Pre-Election Efforts to Delegitimize the Election Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
o 1.4 President Trump’s Launch of the Big Lie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
o 1.5 Post-Election: President Trump Replaces His Campaign Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
o 1.6 President Trump’s Campaign Team Told Him He Lost the Election and There Was No Significant Fraud . . . . . . . 204
o 1.7 President Trump Had His Day in Court . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
o 1.8 President Trump Repeatedly Promoted Conspiracy Theories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
o 1.9 President Trump’s January 6th Speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
• Chapter 2 “I JUST WANT TO FIND 11,780 VOTES” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
o 2.1 The Electoral College, and President Trump’s Attempt to Subvert It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
o 2.2 The Plan Emerges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
o 2.3 Outreach and Implementation of the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
o 2.4 An Outright Request for Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
o 2.5 Some Officials Eagerly Assisted President Trump With His Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
o 2.6 The Final Outreach to State Legislators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
o 2.7 The Harm Caused by Demonizing Public Servants . . . . . . . 300
• Chapter 3 FAKE ELECTORS AND THE “THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE STRATEGY” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
o 3.1 Laying the Groundwork for the Fake Elector Plan: The Chesebro Memos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
o 3.2 President Trump and the Campaign Adopt the Fake Elector Scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345
o 3.3 The Campaign Legal Team Bows Out, and Giuliani Steps In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
o 3.4 Some of the Proposed Fake Electors Express Concerns About the Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
o 3.5 On December 14th, The Fake Electors Meet and Vote . . . 352
o 3.6 The Fallout from the Fake Elector Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
• Chapter 4 ‘‘JUST CALL IT CORRUPT AND LEAVE THE REST TO ME’’ . . . . . . . . . 373
o 4.1 The DOJ Found No Significant Evidence of Fraud . . . . . . . . 373
o 4.2 November 23, 2020: Barr Challenges President Trump’s Election Lies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
o 4.3 December 1, 2020: President Trump is Irate After Barr Says There is No Significant Fraud . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 376
o 4.4 December 14, 2020: Barr Submits His Resignation . . . . . . 379
o 4.5 Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue Hold the Line. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381
o 4.6 President Trump is Introduced to Jeffrey Clark . . . . . . . . 382
o 4.7 December 27th Phone Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
o 4.8 Congressman Scott Perry Calls Donoghue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
o 4.9 December 28, 2020: The Clark Letter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
o 4.10 December 29th Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
o 4.11 Rosen’s December 30th Call with President Trump . . . . . 395
o 4.12 December 31st Meeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
o 4.13 January 2, 2021: Rosen and Donoghue Confront Clark Again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
o 4.14 January 3, 2021: Clark Informs DOJ Leadership that He Will Accept President Trump’s Offer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
o 4.15 President Trump’s Unprecedented Attempt to Subvert the DOJ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
• Chapter 5 “A COUP IN SEARCH OF A LEGAL THEORY” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
o 5.1 President Trump and His Allies Embark on a Desperate Gambit to Block Certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
o 5.2 President Trump and his Allies Exert Intense Public and Private Pressure on the Vice President in Advance of the Joint Session of Congress on January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . 441
o 5.3 President Trump and his Allies Continue to Pressure the Vice President on January 6th, Threatening His Life and Our Democracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 456
o 5.4 President Trump Endangers Pence’s Life, Causing the Vice President, His Family, and Staff to Narrowly Miss the Rioters as They Flee the Mob Attacking the Capitol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
o 5.5 Aftermath of the Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
• Chapter 6 “BE THERE, WILL BE WILD!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499
o 6.1 How Far-Right Extremists and Conspiracy Theorists Planned for January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
o 6.2 The Proud Boys: “[Y]ou Want to Storm the Capitol” . . . . 507
o 6.3 The Oath Keepers: “He Called Us All to the Capitol and Wants Us to Make it Wild!!!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 512
o 6.4 “Trump Said It’s Gonna be Wild!!!!!!! It’s Gonna be Wild!!!!!!!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 514
o 6.5 “Ready to Step in And Do What Is Needed” . . . . . . . . . . . . 516 6.6 “Friends of Stone” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
o 6.7 White Nationalists: “The Capitol Siege was Fucking Awesome…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519
o 6.8 The Three (III%) Percenters: “#OccupyCongress” . . . . . . . 521
o 6.9 QAnon: “Operation Occupy the Capitol” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 525
o 6.10 TheDonald.win: “Occupy the Capitol” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527
o 6.11 How the White House and Rally Organizers Prepared for January 6th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530
o 6.12 “He’s Calling on You, He Needs Your Help” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
o 6.13 “Trump is Supposed to Order Us to the Capitol” . . . . . . . 532
o 6.14 “Well, I Should Walk With the People.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533
o 6.15 “POTUS…Likes the Crazies.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534
o 6.16 January 5, 2021: “Fort Trump” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
o 6.17 “Together, We Will STOP THE STEAL.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 538
• Chapter 7 187 MINUTES OF DERELICTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 577
o 7.1 “Reinsert the Mike Pence Lines” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
o 7.2 “I’ll Be There With You” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 585
o 7.3 The President’s Anger When He Could Not March to the Capitol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587
o 7.4 “We’re Going to Try to Get the President to Put Out a Statement” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 592
o 7.5 “He Doesn’t Want to Do Anything” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595
o 7.6 “He Thinks Mike Deserves It” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 596
o 7.7 “I Guess They’re Just More Upset About the Election Theft Than You Are” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 597
o 7.8 “Stay Peaceful!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 599
o 7.9 “The President Needs to Stop This ASAP” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600
o 7.10 “We Love You. You’re Very Special” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 603
o 7.11 “Remember This Day Forever!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607
o 7.12 President Trump Still Sought to Delay the Joint Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 608
o 7.13 He “Just Didn’t Want to Talk About It Anymore” . . . . . . . . 610
o 7.14 President Trump’s “Rhetoric Killed Someone” . . . . . . . . . . 611
• Chapter 8 ANALYSIS OF THE ATTACK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 637
o 8.1 The Mob Assembles in Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 639
o 8.2 March of the Proud Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 642
o 8.3 The Initial Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 645
o 8.4 President Trump’s Mob Descends on the U.S. Capitol . . . 647
o 8.5 The Mob Surges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 651
o 8.6 The United States Capitol is Breached . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 653
o 8.7 President Trump Pours Fuel on the Fire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
o 8.8 The Evacuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664
o 8.9 Clearing the U.S. Capitol Building and Restricted Grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 666
• RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 689
• APPENDICES Appendix 1 GOVERNMENT AGENCY PREPARATION FOR AND RESPONSE TO JANUARY 6TH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
• APPENDIX 2: DC NATIONAL GUARD PREPARATION FOR AND RESPONSE TO JANUARY 6TH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724
• APPENDIX 3: THE BIG RIP-OFF: FOLLOW THE MONEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770
• APPENDIX 4: MALIGN FOREIGN INFLUENCE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 806