From the 'Stop the Steal' Rally to a DOJ Probe: How the US Capitol Riot Unfolded
© AP Photo / Jose Luis Magana
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Last week, the US House Select Committee investigating the 2021 Capitol breach withdrew its subpoena of former President Donald Trump. The move came as the committee's authority to operate drew to a close, with the new Republican-dominated Congress due to begin work on January 3.
Friday marks the second anniversary of the Capitol riot, when a crowd of protesters, among them Trump supporters, breached the US Capitol in Washington DC on January 6, 2021 to stop Congress from certifying the 2020 presidential election victory of Democrat Joe Biden. How did the breach unfold and what did it lead to?
Trump's Speech
Early in the afternoon on January 6, 2021, then-outgoing US President Donald Trump addressed a rally of his supporters on the Ellipse one mile from the Capitol in Washington, DC.
He reiterated his claims of election fraud and called on then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election results by refusing to certify key electoral votes. Trump expressed his anger at Big Tech, which he accused of rigging the election, and at the media for publishing what he described as fake news targeting him.
He thanked the crowd for gathering in his support and called on them to “stop the steal,” a phrase used to refer to his critics "stealing" the election, which Trump claimed he had won.
The 45th US president then reportedly told his supporters, "We’re going to walk down to the Capitol" and “if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.”
Protesters Break Through Capitol Security
As Trump concluded his speech, several thousand protesters started marching towards the US Capitol, where a crowd had assembled, clashing with police. The rioters then managed to break through the police barricades and enter the Capitol building, with some protesters smashing through windows and doors.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they push barricades to storm the US Capitol in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021
© AFP 2023 / ROBERTO SCHMIDT
For several hours, rioters looted and ransacked congressional offices, including the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. They also invaded the Senate chamber and posed for pictures.
Then-Vice President Pence and his family were immediately evacuated from the Senate chambers. Some members of Congress were escorted to an underground bunker while others barricaded themselves in offices or sheltered in the House chamber.
Trump Urges His Supporters to Go Home
More than two hours after protesters began storming the Capitol, Trump took to Twitter and released a video message, repeating his claims of election fraud and urging his supporters to go home.
In the footage, then-POTUS was seen saying, "I know your pain. I know your hurt. But you have to go home now.”
He went on to tout his supporters as “very special” and said, “we can't play into the hands of these people. We have to have peace. So go home. We love you. You're very special.” The remarks came as GOP lawmakers and former US Administration officials begged Trump to ask his supporters to stop the violence.
National Guard Comes to Rescue
After then-acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller called up 1,100 members of the DC National Guard, they eventually secured the perimeter, allowing law enforcement and the FBI to clear the chambers and offices of the US Capitol.
Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as people try to storm the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC, on January 6, 2021
© AFP 2023 / JOSEPH PREZIOSO
By 8 p.m. local time (1:00 GMT), the US Capitol complex was declared free of rioters, and Pence called the Senate back into session, while Pelosi did the same in the House. Congress voted to confirm Joe Biden's electoral college win the following morning.
At least five protesters died in the US Capitol breach, with four police officers dying by suicide in the aftermath of the attack. As many as 138 policemen were injured. The government earmarked more than $30 million for repairs and security measures following the riot.
Twitter 'Permanently' Suspends Trump's Page
Later on January 6, 2021, Congressional Democrats and some Republicans accused Trump of "inciting insurrection," with GOP Senator Mitt Romney arguing that the Capitol riot was the result of a “selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning.”
Romney claimed that “what happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States.”
Republican Adam Kinzinger, in turn, described the January 6, 2021 events as a “coup attempt,” tweeting to Trump at the time, “You are not protecting the country. Where is the DC guard? You are done and your legacy will be a disaster.”
1 February 2022, 03:44 GMT
In an unprecedented move three days later, Twitter announced that the 45th president’s account on the platform was "permanently suspended […] due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
The company added that the decision was made "after close review of recent Tweets” from the Real DonaldTrump account. Almost two years after the ban, Trump’s page was reinstated by new Twitter chief executive Elon Musk, who announced the decision in early December.
Trump's Second Impeachment
On January 13, 2021, Trump was impeached by the House for a historic second time, charged with “incitement of insurrection” over the Capitol breach.
Unlike the first impeachment, 10 House Republicans joined the Democrats, as the House voted 232-197 to impeach the 45th president, who was then acquitted in the Senate trial.
In the final tally, 57 senators endorsed and 43 rejected a single article of impeachment. Seven Republicans sided with the Democrat senators in the vote to convict Trump.
House Select Panel Opens Probe
In July 2021, Pelosi formed a bipartisan House select committee, modeled after the commission formed in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, to investigate the Capitol breach.
On December 19, 2022, the January 6 select committee voted to refer former President Trump and others to the Justice Department for potential criminal charges, including inciting or aiding an insurrection.
By December 2022, at least 964 people had been arrested and charged with a variety of crimes, making it the Justice Department's largest criminal investigation in history.
Jan 6 Committee's Final Report
On December 21, the House January 6 panel released its long-awaited final report, capping an 18-month probe into the Capitol breach.
The 845-page document, in particular, called for creating a “formal mechanism for evaluating whether to bar” Trump from holding future federal office due to evidence that he violated his constitutional oath to support the US Constitution while engaging in an "insurrection."
“Our country has come too far to allow a defeated President to turn himself into a successful tyrant by upending our democratic institutions, fomenting violence, and, as I saw it, opening the door to those in our country whose hatred and bigotry threaten equality and justice for all Americans,” committee Chairman Bennie Thompson wrote in a foreword to the report.
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The panel’s Vice Chair Liz Cheney wrote in her own foreword, “Every President in our history has defended this orderly transfer of authority, except one.” According to her, “January 6, 2021 was the first time one American President refused his Constitutional duty to transfer power peacefully to the next.”
The report pointed out that “in the two months between the [2020] November election and the January 6th insurrection, President Trump or his inner circle engaged in at least 200 apparent acts of public or private outreach, pressure, or condemnation, targeting either State legislators or State or local election administrators, to overturn State election results.”
Trump in a series of social media posts called the select committee’s report “highly partisan” and repeated the claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
The document came weeks after the 76-year-old announced that he would seek the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 election.
Jan 6 Panel Withdraws Trump Subpoena
In late December, Thompson said in a letter that his committee was withdrawing its subpoena of former President Donald Trump, as the panel is set to dissolve before the Republicans take control of the chamber in January.
“In light of the imminent end of our investigation, the Select Committee can no longer pursue the specific information covered by the subpoena...Therefore, through this letter, I hereby formally withdraw the subpoena issued to former President Trump, and notify you that he is no longer obligated to comply or produce records in response to said subpoena,” Thompson wrote in a letter to Trump’s attorney.
The 45th president had sued to block the committee’s subpoena for documents and testimony related to the Capitol riot. Following its withdrawal, Trump claimed on social media that the development came because the panel “knew I did nothing wrong, or they were about to lose in court.”
