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 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.
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.”
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.
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.”
