One challenge for the House select committee investigating the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 is that its mandate was narrowly drawn. It was established to “investigate the facts, circumstances, and causes relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol,” including “influencing factors that contributed to the domestic terrorist attack.” The details of the Proud Boys showing up and breaking windows is squarely within that scope. The months-long effort by Donald Trump and his allies to subvert the election results, less directly.
Put another way, the path to accountability for those who participated in the Capitol riot is clear. The path to accountability for the president that stoked the day's anger and called his supporters to the city, less so.
We have a much better picture of what unfolded in the weeks after the election than we did at the end of June, when the select committee was formed. That’s in part thanks to the information gathered by the committee and in part because of external reporting exploring what the White House and allies of the then-president were doing. But it also makes clear the ways in which a focus centered on the Capitol on Jan. 6 risks obscuring the broader effort in which Trump was engaged.
On Sunday, the committee recommended that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows face criminal contempt charges for his failure to offer testimony related to the events of Jan. 6. In its referral to the House, the committee details new...
President Donald Trump has created a murky mess of unproven claims and provably false claims about the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Trump began asserting over the weekend, without providing e...