News of the series’ development comes as the increasingly complex investigation of the Capitol attack continues to take place in federal court, adding texture to the public’s understanding of the forces that led to January 6.
The still untitled series should begin with a glimpse of Donald Trump’s final days in office, with the outgoing president brooding over his defeat and obsessed with his false and incendiary claims that the election was stolen from him.
Then he will portray the insurrection itself, while a crowd of Trump supporters – some who attended a Trump rally at Ellipse, others who joined organized militias with the intention of preventing Congress from certifying election results – ran to the Capitol and overwhelmed the police for hours.
And the series will then focus on the consequences, when Washington began to seek to make sense of the attack on the Capitol, and the criminal and Congressional investigations still seeking to understand it. Each episode is expected to focus on a different point of view, be it a congressman trying to escape the crowd or a rebel who traveled to Washington to fulfill Trump’s exhortation to “Stop the theft”.
While it is not immediately clear which aspects of the revolt will be recreated, elements of the insurrection made for TV are not lacking.
There is the heroism now known to Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman, as he diverted the crowd from the still-occupied Senate chamber. There is the fatal shot of Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was trying to breach the chamber of the Chamber. There are the agonizing moments of dread of the legislators and journalists themselves, trapped on the floor of the Chamber while the protesters started knocking on the doors and the policemen drew their weapons. And there is the still obscure role of violent militias like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, whose participation in the riot has led to the most serious conspiracy charges raised by prosecutors to date.
“The Comey Rule” sought to bring together the dense and complicated events of Trump’s 2016 election – the way the FBI handled Clinton’s email investigation, his investigation of a possible Trump-Russia conspiracy and the polarizing tactics of the then FBI director James Comey – in two one-hour episodes. Comey, whose book, “A Higher Loyalty” served as the original text, was described by Jeff Daniels as a tortured, self-centered but ultimately just figure – although he is less fondly remembered by various factions on Capitol Hill.
The series, however, generated many looks just a few weeks before the 2020 election, breaking Showtime’s record for the most watched limited series in the network’s history.
One of the producers of “The Comey Rule”, Shane Salerno, is joining Ray on the new project, along with producer Josh McLaughlin.