The Second Anniversary of the Capitol Assault: Is it possible to put an end to the investigation?

The trial of Enrique Tarrio, leader of the far-right group Proud Boys, and four other members of the organization begins in federal district court in Washington. It played a key role in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots, the prosecution said. The founder of another far-right movement, the Oath Keepers, Stuart Rhodes, could face up to 20 years in prison: in late November 2022 a jury found him guilty of conspiracy to commit an antigovernment insurrection.

But Donald Trump should bear full responsibility for the events of January 6, according to the report of the House of Representatives Special Committee on the Capitol Attack, established by the Democrats and now disbanded. However, such conclusions of the special committee are only advisory in nature, and it is up to the U.S. Justice Department to give them legal force.

Trump supporters are perplexed as to why the former president should be responsible for the actions of the rioters. “We specifically drove to Washington that day by bus to hear Trump speak,” recalls University of Memphis professor Andrei Znamensky, “and he said the literal following: “Let’s protest peacefully, let’s avoid violence.”

In the video, Trump says, “We’re going to march down the street – anyone – we’re going to come to the Capitol and cheer on our brave senators, congressmen and congresswomen.”

Twelve minutes after the former president utters these words, crowds head for the Capitol – the far-right Proud Boys have already gathered there. Twenty-four minutes later, Trump supporters break through police barriers. The former White House leader finishes his speech, and there are already clashes with police on the Capitol steps.

“Police used tear gas. Pushed back the protesters, and they actually started fighting with Capitol security. There were a lot of protesters who tried to cool the hotheads down so they would not get into the Capitol. And there were those who, on the contrary, provoked and urged to go forward.

What followed was door-breaking, glass-bashing, pogroms inside the Capitol, a manhunt for congressmen. More than two thousand people burst into the building.

“There’s a popular theory among Trump supporters that their freedom of speech was infringed upon on Jan. 6, 2021,” George Washington University professor Richard Robin told the Voice of America’s Russian service. – But what kind of freedom of speech is that? Is looking for congressional leaders to beat them up or even kill them free speech?”

No one orders the National Guard to stop the rioting. Only 3 hours and 7 minutes into his speech at the rally, Trump tweets to encourage supporters to disperse to their homes. Why not sooner? And why didn’t he immediately request backup for Capitol Police? The Select Committee characterizes Trump’s inaction as criminal.

“Our democracy has come to the edge of a precipice. We were standing there, looking down,” says George Washington University professor Richard Robin, “and if the investigation hadn’t then revealed everything that had been revealed, then we would have just fallen into that abyss.

From the congressional investigation, it appears that Trump associates – from members of his family to members of the administration to hosts of conservative Fox News – wrote messages to him asking him to intervene. Brian Kilmeade of Fox News asked: “Please get him on the air. He’s ruining everything you guys have been pushing for.” Kilmeade’s colleague, Laura Ingraham, wrote: “The president should tell the people at the Capitol to go home.

The addressee of these messages was then White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. He could have been a key witness if he had testified under oath before the January 6 Committee, but he did not appear before Congress. Many details were revealed by his former aide Cassidy Hutchinson. For example, that Trump wanted to head to the Capitol himself, but was stopped by the Secret Service for security reasons. According to her, Donald Trump even tried to drive the presidential car himself to go to Congress. Trump responded to this testimony by calling it an “idiotic fabrication.”

Without getting to the Capitol, the president, according to Hutchinson and other witnesses, watched the assault on television, made periodic calls, and, as former White House staffer Nicholas Luna told the January 6 Committee, called Mike Pence a “slug” in a phone conversation – for refusing to challenge the election results, which Trump insisted he did.

Another important detail: Most of the witnesses who appeared to testify before the January 6th Committee invoked the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, which gives them the right not to testify against themselves under oath. Accordingly, none of them answered the question: where is the evidence that the 2020 presidential election was rigged? And that was the main argument Trump used to call for the Capitol.

There were also gaps in the security of the congressional building. As Politico wrote, the U.S. Secret Service warned the Capitol Police of a possible assault as early as January 5, 2021. It was also known in advance that the protesters had weapons, that members of ultra-right groups were arriving in Washington, and that they were ready for aggressive actions. For his part, Capitol Police Chief Stephen Sand, who resigned the day after the storming, blamed federal intelligence agencies for not alerting them to possible threats. Today, after two years, current Capitol Police Chief Tom Munger says there have been significant improvements in security. And that, so far, is the only result of all the investigations that has satisfied both Trump supporters and opponents. Both believe there is no end in sight to the Jan. 6 story.

“The Republicans in the House of Representatives asked the Democrats for the records of all the investigations into the January 6 events, but the Democrats refused and only provided a report based on those records. I think it is incomplete.

On January 5, it was reported that the family of police officer Brian Siknick, who died the day after the assault, sued Donald Trump. The lawsuit says that Siknick’s death is the result of “divisive Trump rhetoric and false claims of a stolen presidential election.”

“The Special Committee on Jan. 6 has already proven that Trump was behind all the events of that day,” Richard Robin believes. – But what to do about it next? Trump has to respond in some way.”