In a chilling exchange, the report describes how two Secret Service agents reacted to the mob at the Capitol in the minutes after Trump tweeted his video telling supporters to go home.
Phil Helsel Then-President Donald Trump and his campaign raised $250 million between the November 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, the Jan. 6 committee said. The fundraising emails used incendiary — and false — language stating that the election was “rigged” or that donations could help stop people from “trying to steal the election,” according to the report.
Most of the $250 million raised was from small-dollar donations, it says. “Millions of dollars that were raised ostensibly for ‘election defense’ and ‘fighting voter fraud’ were not spent that way at all,” the report says. Trump created a PAC, called Save America, that allowed him to keep millions and spend it with fewer restrictions, the committee wrote. “Prior to the formation of Save America, any money raised by the Trump Campaign could effectively only be spent on recount and election-contest related expenses, and to pay off campaign debt,” the committee wrote. “But now the money raised into Save America could allow President Trump to pay for his personal expenses, such as travel or hotel stays.”'I don’t know how they’re gonna retake the Capitol building back'In a chilling exchange, the report describes how two Secret Service agents reacted to the mob at the Capitol in the minutes after Trump tweeted his video telling supporters to go home. The report said that a minute after Trump's tweet went out, one agent told a group of agents that even more people had breached the Capitol. Another replied,"I don’t know how they’re gonna retake the Capitol building back at this point." Various reports, testimony and documentary footage shot by House Speak Nancy Pelosi's daughter showed a long struggle to send National Guard troops in to help police quell the mob. It would be hours before backup arrived and the crowd eventually dispersed.Jared Kushner began keeping close tabs on fundraising after Biden won: reportThe committee alleges that Jared Kushner began closely monitoring the Trump campaign's effort to raise money off lies about the election on Nov. 8 — a day after NBC News and other networks called the 2020 race for Joe Biden."Kushner requested that a daily tracker be created showing the Trump Campaign’s financial position from election day forward," the report said."In an email, Kushner noted that the tracker would allow the Campaign to consider its cash flow ahead of the creation of “a new entity for POTUS[’s] other political activities.” "Kushner stated that he needed this new daily tracker because the Trump Campaign was going to continue fundraising post-election," the report said. The new entity was Trump’s new leadership PAC, Save America, which has paid tens of thousands of dollars per month to former Trump aides like Dan Scavino and Nick Luna; a fashion designer with ties to Melania Trump; Trump properties; and the America First Policy Institute, where Mark Meadows is a senior partner.Trump wanted 10,000 National Guard members to protect him and supporters in march to Capitol, report saysFormer President Donald Trump wanted 10,000 National Guard members protecting him and his supporters as they marched from the Ellipse to the U.S. Capitol, the report says. Trump “floated” the idea after advisers tried to talk him out of being “on the ground” with supporters during the events of Jan. 6, citing concern for his safety, the report says. Trump wanted the National Guard to protect them from"any supposed threats by leftwing counter-protesters," according to the report. A senior adviser, Max Miller, rejected the idea, saying it was unnecessary. In a text to former Trump campaign spokeswoman Katrina Pierson, he said, “Just glad we killed the national guard and a procession,” the report says.Right-wing groups seemed to know Trump wanted an active role on Jan. 6Lucas Denney, the leader of the right-wing militia group the Three Percenters, “curiously” had “heard a rumor” that Trump would march with protesters on Jan. 6, the report’s authors wrote. “Things are going to be happening here. Trump is going to be speaking to everyone Wed [January 6] before everyone marches to the capital [sic]. Rumour [sic] has it that he may march with us,” Denney wrote in a Jan. 4 Facebook post, according to the report. The committee adds:"On or about January 6th, Denney sent another message via Facebook, writing: 'Trump speaking to us around 11 am then we march to the capital and after that we have special plans that I can’t say right now over Facebook. But keep an eye out for live feed tomorrow from me. Tomorrow will be historic.'” The report also cites a text message from Stop the Steal organizer Ali Alexander about plans to march to the Capitol after Trump's speech that was planned to take place at the Ellipse. “On January 5th, Ali Alexander sent a text to a journalist saying: Ellipse then US capitol [sic]. Trump is supposed to order us to the capitol [sic] at the end of his speech but we will see,’” the report states.Republican National Committee knew fundraising claims were false, report saysThe Republican National Committee knew that then-President Donald Trump’s claims about the election were false but continued to raise money off them anyway, the Jan. 6 report said. Trump and his campaign raised $250 million after the November 2020 presidential election with incendiary language about trying to “steal” the election, the report says. The report also says that members of the RNC knew Trump’s claims about winning the election were false but that “they walked as close to the line as they dared” and made minor changes mainly to insulate it from legal exposure. RNC lawyers instructed that messages shouldn’t say “steal the election” but were to use “try to steal the election" instead, the report says. Similar moves were made to rely on insinuation, it says, with phrases changed to such language as “Only LEGAL ballots must be counted and verified,” according to the report. “RNC leadership knew that President Trump was lying to the American people. Yet, they did nothing to publicly distance themselves from his efforts to overturn the election,” the committee wrote. “The RNC’s response was merely to tinker around the edges of the fundraising copy.”Katz “rose to ask a question: How were staffers supposed to tell voters that the Trump Campaign wanted to keep counting votes in Arizona but stop counting votes in other States ?” the report reads.Ivanka Trump grew visibly frustrated after failing to calm her father, committee saysThe committee said Ivanka Trump grew visibly frustrated on Jan. 6 as she repeatedly tried to be a calming influence on her father, repeatedly encouraging him to tell his supporters to back down. The committee says Ivanka Trump told them that she eventually retreated to the office of her husband, Jared Kushner,"because she needed to 'regroup' and collect herself." Several witnesses backed her account, describing her as appearing"[v]isibly upset" after having spoken with her father, as though she had just had a"tough conversation," according to the committee.Scott Wong As it was tasked to do, the committee issued a number of recommendations in its report to both Congress and federal agencies. It called for reforms to the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to make it clear that the vice president does not have the authority to unilaterally reject electoral votes, an update that is already in the works. Congress will pass such a recommendation this week as part of its omnibus spending package. The panel also urged congressional committees to examine whether to create a “formal mechanism” to evaluate whether to bar Trump and others identified in the report from holding future office under the 14th Amendment. In addition, the Jan. 6 committee recommended that federal agencies undertake a “whole of government strategy” to root out and combat violent extremism, including white nationalists. And it urged law enforcement to designate future certifications of presidential elections as a “national special security event.” That would require greater planning, coordination and security for future Jan. 6 certification events at the Capitol.Trump was 'looped in' on Eastman's theory about vice president's role from the start, report saysreached out to then-President Donald Trump the day he began drafting a memo arguing that the vice president could overturn the 2020 election results — and heard back immediately, according to the report. On Dec. 23, 2020, in an email to Trump’s assistant, Molly Michael, Eastman said: “Is the President available for a very quick call today at some point? Just want to update him on our overall strategic thinking.” Five minutes later, Eastman got a phone call from the White House switchboard, the report says. The conversation lasted 23 minutes. The two-page memo Eastman drafted Dec. 23 was the first of two, and it summarized a way to ensure that “President Trump is re-elected,” the report says, adding,"From the start, President Trump was looped in on Eastman’s proposal."Andy Cross / The Denver Post via Getty Images fileCommittee says Giuliani 'frantically called' Trump and GOP lawmakers on Jan. 6Although the committee had previously said Rudy Giuliani spoke to both the president and a group of Republican lawmakers Jan. 6, the report reveals just how close to each other those calls occurred. The committee says Giuliani"frantically called" the White House as soon as Trump posted a video on Twitter urging supporters to go home ."Failing to get through he called back, once every minute, 4:17 p.m., 4:18 p.m., 4:19 p.m., 4:20 p.m.," the report said. At 4:21, the report said, Giuliani eventually reached chief of staff Mark Meadows and then, finally, after several more calls to the White House, Trump. According to the committee, after Giuliani and Trump spoke for around 12 minutes, Giuliani called a group of GOP lawmakers — some of whom he connected with.Rudy Giuliani at a news conference at the Republican National Committee in Washington about lawsuits regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election on Nov. 19, 2020.Secret Service 'informed of potential violence' on Jan. 6The Secret Service knew violence was possible at the Jan. 6 rally, the report concluded. “The Committee has reviewed hundreds of thousands of new Secret Service documents, including many demonstrating that the Secret Service had been informed of potential violence at the Capitol before the Ellipse rally on January 6th,” its authors wrote. “These documents were critical to our understanding of what the Secret Service and White House knew about the threat to the Capitol on January 6th.”
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