Between June 9 and December 22, 2022, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol held eight primetime public hearings. They interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses. They reviewed over a million documents. They produced an 845-page final report. And they laid out, in methodical detail, exactly how a sitting president tried to overturn a democratic election.
What the Hearings Showed
The committee organized each hearing around a specific theme, building a narrative arc that functioned like a federal prosecution brief:
Hearing 1 (June 9): The overview. Trump was told he lost — by his campaign manager, by his attorney general, by his data team — and chose to push the “Big Lie” anyway. The committee showed never-before-seen footage of the Capitol breach and established that the violence was not spontaneous.
Hearings 2–3 (June 13 & 16): The pressure campaign on Vice President Pence. John Eastman’s memo arguing Pence could reject electoral votes. Pence’s team testified he refused. Trump tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage” while the mob was inside the Capitol chanting “hang Mike Pence.”
Hearing 4 (June 21): Pressure on state officials. The “find me 11,780 votes” call to Georgia. Pressure on Arizona’s Speaker, Michigan’s Senate leader, Pennsylvania legislators. All refused. All faced threats.
Hearing 5 (June 23): Corrupting the DOJ. Trump tried to install Jeffrey Clark as Acting Attorney General because Clark would send letters to states claiming the DOJ had found election fraud. Only the threat of mass resignations stopped it.
Hearing 6 (June 28): Cassidy Hutchinson’s bombshell testimony. The closest anyone got to describing what happened inside the White House on January 6. Trump demanded to go to the Capitol. He threw his lunch at the wall. He knew the crowd had weapons and didn’t care.
Hearing 7 (July 12): The 187 minutes. From the end of Trump’s speech to his video telling rioters to go home. What he did during those three hours: watched TV. Called senators about delaying the certification. Refused to call off the mob.
Hearing 8 (July 21): The summation. Synthesis of all evidence. Established Trump’s direct culpability.
The Criminal Referrals
On December 19, 2022, the committee voted to refer Trump to the DOJ on four criminal charges: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement, and “inciting, assisting, or aiding and comforting” an insurrection. The referrals were non-binding — the DOJ didn’t need them to prosecute. But they put Congress on record.
Bottom Line
The committee did what it was created to do. It documented the conspiracy, identified the players, preserved the evidence, made criminal referrals, and published everything for the public record. It did not have the power to prosecute, and the people who did have that power ultimately let every federal case disappear. The committee expired when the new Congress was seated in January 2023. The 845-page report sits in the public record. The evidence is there for anyone willing to read it. The question was never whether the case could be made. It was whether anyone with the power to act would follow through. They didn’t.
Sources
- GovInfo: January 6th Committee Final Report and Supporting Materials, published December 22, 2022.
- Lawfare: Analysis of the committee’s evidence and legal conclusions.
- Associated Press: Full Capitol siege investigation coverage hub.
- New York Times: Complete coverage of all eight public hearings.