Jan. 6 Committee Chair Says Final Report on Capitol Riots May Be Ready Before Christmas
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Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty
The final report of the U.S. House committee investigating the riots of Jan. 6, 2021 might be published before Christmas, according to the committee's chair, Rep. Bennie Thompson.
Thompson, a Democrat, told reporters this week there's "a good possibility" that the committee's final report could come out prior to Dec. 25 — and it will be eight chapters long.
"The body of the report is complete and there is general agreement on that," Thompson said, CNN reports.
The bipartisan committee is working to wrap up its investigation prior to January, when the GOP regains control of the House following the midterm elections, which likely put an end to the probe.
The committee's hearings, which began airing publicly in June, have featured new revelations about the events leading up to the attacks and how former President Donald Trump and his allies responded.
Among the most notable allegations are that "multiple" Republican lawmakers contacted the Trump administration seeking presidential pardons in the wake of the attacks, according to committee vice chair Liz Cheney, and that Trump at one point attempted to force his Secret Service agents to drive him to the Capitol building himself.
Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Video of then-President Trump leaving his Jan. 6, 2021 rally in a Secret Service SUV
During her public testimony, Cassidy Hutchinson, the former aide to Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, relayed an anecdote from deputy chief of staff Tony Ornato.
According to Hutchinson, Trump became "irate" when he learned the Secret Service did not want him traveling to the Capitol after he delivered a fiery speech to supporters alleging the election had been stolen from him. According to her account, Trump yelled, "I'm the f------ president, take me up to the Capitol now."
"The president then reached up to grab at the steering wheel," Hutchinson said, recalling what she was told.
When Trump's head of Secret Service grabbed the president's arm to tell him not to take over the steering wheel, Hutchinson said Trump then grabbed at the head of Secret Service's "clavicle," gesturing to her own throat to demonstrate what she had been told happened.
In the wake of Hutchinson's testimony, Ornato has reportedly been questioned by the committee several times.
Brandon Bell/Getty Cassidy Hutchinson
Elsewhere in the hearings, Hutchinson described other moments of anger for Trump, telling the committee that she once walked in to a room in the White House to see a valet cleaning up after Trump had "thrown his lunch against the wall."
"There was ketchup dripping down the wall," she said, and a shattered porcelain plate on the ground. The valet told her that Trump had grown angry after Attorney General Bill Barr fact-checked his false claims of election fraud in an interview with the Associated Press.
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CNN reports that, according to Thompson, the final report will include material the committee has not previously presented to the public.
It remains to be seen where the panel will issue criminal referrals — that matter is "still under consideration," Thompson said — but he added that there is a "good possibility" the report will be published by Dec. 25.