WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are launching a vast reinvestigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, seeking to push the blame away from Donald Trump, who has been indicted over his actions, or his supporters in the riot trying to overturn the 2020 election.
As Trump campaigns to return to the White House, the House Administration subcommittee on oversight held the first of what is expected to be regular public hearings revisiting the official account, which was aired in great detail in 2022 by the House's Select Committee on Jan. 6.
Chairman Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., called Jan. 6 a "dark day" in U.S. history as he opened Tuesday's hearing to delve into the investigation of pipe bombs that were left outside Republican and Democratic party headquarters that day. But, he said, "we still have many unanswered questions."
The panel's work comes as Trump and President Joe Biden are galloping toward a 2020 rematch this fall, and Republicans, some once skeptical of Trump's return to the White House, have quickly been falling in line to support the former president. The House GOP's high-profile impeachment inquiry into Biden has stalled without a clear path forward.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans intend to release a final report on Jan. 6 "to correct the incomplete narrative" advanced by the previous work of the Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack.
With newly released testimony and an 80-plus page report of initial findings, the House Administration subcommittee has outlined a roadmap ahead for its probe -- including revisiting key testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who delivered a bombshell account of Trump's actions that day.
The panel's report draws on many of the conspiracy theories circulating about Jan. 6 -- from the formation of the Select Committee by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to newer questions about the unidentified people who erected the hangman's scaffolding outside the Capitol.
"Democrats wasted no time before pointing fingers at President Trump for the events of January 6, 2021," the initial findings of the report said.
At the first hearing, Republicans grilled the U.S. Capitol Police about why a bomb-sniffing K9 unit did not initially detect the pipe bombs found outside party headquarters and why police didn't respond faster to seal off the area.
U.S. Capitol Police Assistant Chief Sean Gallagher told the panel it was "chaotic" that day as the mob of Trump supporters descended on the Capitol.
"I want to be upfront and honest, U.S. Capitol Police haven't shied away from the failures of that day," Gallagher said about the well-documented leadership problems spelled out in their own report.
He described the fighting on the West and East fronts of the Capitol as police tried to hold back the mob -- "our officers were suffering injuries" -- and calls coming in, including about a pick-up truck loaded with Molotov cocktails, machetes, rifles, handguns and ammunition parked nearby.
Five people died in the riot and its immediate aftermath, including a police officer, and other officers died later by suicide. More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riot, with hundreds convicted.
"For context, I would gladly give up a perimeter not being perfect to be able to get officers responding to help their brothers and sisters who were calling for help at the U.S. Capitol," Gallagher testified.
Rep. Norma Torres of California, the panel's ranking Democrat and a former 911 dispatcher, questioned the premise of the hearing, particularly as federal investigations are underway: "What exactly is it that we're doing here?"
"Maybe it is to peddle crazy right-wing conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 pipe bombs spreading in the dark corners of the Internet?" she asked.
"Or maybe we are here so this subcommittee can once again try to muddle our history, villainize law enforcement and undo the efforts of the bipartisan Jan. 6 Select Committee," she said, "all to distract from the simple fact that the former president and Republican nominee for president orchestrated a corrupt scheme to overturn the results of a free and fair election."
Trump, who exhorted his supporters to "fight like hell" before they swarmed the Capitol, has been indicted on federal charges of conspiracy to defraud Americans and obstruction of an official proceeding over Jan. 6. The Supreme Court is considering his claim of immunity.
House Republicans have criticized the Select Committee, claiming it didn't turn over all aspects of its work.